Track Walking Nov 17, 2025

214 - Hobby is Too Expensive and Life Too Short (Rory and June Lonergan)

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83:50

Term

turboed

When someone says they 'turboed' a car, it means they added a special device called a turbocharger to make the engine more powerful. This helps the car go faster and perform better.

Car

Mazda Miata

The Mazda Miata is a small sports car that is very popular for driving on tracks and enjoying the open road. It's known for being fun to drive and easy to handle.

Term

1.6 engine

A 1.6 engine is a type of car engine that has a size of 1.6 liters. This size can affect how powerful the car is and how much fuel it uses.

Car

The Honda Fit EV is a small electric car that can be charged at home and doesn't produce any pollution while driving. It's great for city driving and is usually cheaper to run than gas-powered cars. People like to talk about it because it's practical and helps save money on fuel.

Term

Hi, I'm Scott.

And I'm Seth.

I'm June.

And I'm Rory.

And we are Track Walking.

Tonight, we have two people known as Dead Bear Racing.

We do have a fifth member on the podcast known as Mothman.

He won't be having a speaking role this evening.

They are known around the track community in GLTC

and formerly Sunday Cup.

And also known for making really good waffles

and hawking their sugar on me as much as possible, which I like

and I hate all at the same time.

But yeah, Rory and June, how are you guys doing?

Doing well.

Yeah, it's been a good day today.

Good.

Glad it was better than mine.

So it's usually Mondays aren't bad,

because it's Monday.

Everyone can brace for a Monday and get through it.

And this one took a hold of me.

So but yeah, that's me.

And Seth is up in the UP right now.

Yeah, I'm compassionate for the cold now.

If I was in Texas like usual, I'd be like, it's not really

cold, but it's actually cold.

So I'm feeling bad for Scott, kind of.

Your exceptionally poofy hat says it's cold.

Because it's like 53 degrees in the house,

because I don't want to turn the real heat on,

because I'm playing a game.

I too like to play stupid games.

I'm not that bad.

I'm not terribly far off, though.

I get that little.

It is 70 degrees here.

In the house?

In our house.

Oh yeah.

Good for you.

If we get two real adults on the show,

which is amazing.

I get that little email or piece of paper

in the mail that says, your home, the average home,

energy efficient home, and then your home.

And every time I'm like so much better than everyone,

I kind of get a little secret rush.

Like, hell yeah, I'm better than everyone.

Let's go.

So Rory and June, I know you guys through,

I kind of knew of Rory when you were doing Sunday Cup.

But I don't really know your on ramp

in terms of how you both made your way into good life.

I know our first event was Blackhawk Farms,

I think in 2021 or so.

Yeah, for their track day picnic event.

Yeah.

Was that the?

Or maybe 2019.

Yeah, I was trying to think they did two.

Trying to think.

They did two, and I don't think they were back to back.

Oh, it had to have been 2019 because it

was before the pandemic.

Gotcha.

And before our Miata broke.

Right.

Well, that's how everything became set up.

So we did the track day picnic with the Miata

when it had the 1.6 engine in it.

And then that ended up breaking that year.

So we sort of had to take a pause and figure out

what we wanted to do.

And then the pandemic hit, which sort of gave us

additional time to figure out what to do.

So fortuitous in a way that I wouldn't have

wanted to happen, but there you are.

So why go from a Miata to a slow hatchback?

Well, we actually both owned Honda Fitts in the past,

second generation Honda Fitts.

We had matching blue and red Fitts.

So there's familiarity there.

We both read some of the articles about Sunday Cup spec fit.

Right.

Because we knew we wanted to do something competitive

with the Miata, and it's difficult to be competitive anywhere

with a 1.6 NA engine.

So we were figuring, well, whether we turbo it

or whether we case swap it, no matter what we do,

is it's going to end up costing a lot of time

and a lot of money and a lot of effort to get this done.

So what can we do in the meantime

to just keep us on the track?

Were you guys already eyeballing GLTC

or something like that?

I think I was eyeballing GLTC

or really any sort of wheel-to-wheel experience

at that point.

So you guys-

But I remembered-

Go ahead, please.

Well, I was going to say is I remembered

reading an article about, the article wrote it then

as the spec fit before it became Sunday Cup.

And I think that was in grassroots motor sports or something.

I just recalled reading that and it's like,

you know, right, I bet we could get a Honda Fit

for a lot cheaper than we could fix up the Miata again

to be competitive.

What if we did that and kept on the track

with these grid life people we just met

through the couple of events we did

and we priced it out and I don't know,

it seemed fun and-

Yeah, it was way cheaper than a case swap,

tell you that much.

Yes, yes it is.

Scott's over here crying a little bit.

We all are.

So you guys had the opportunity then

to be five years ahead of the curve

and enter a Miata in Sunday Cup is what I'm hearing.

We did, I mean, it was a consideration,

but I wasn't 100% sure what was wrong with the car

and I really didn't want to spend money on,

maybe it's the ECU, maybe it's this,

maybe it's that for a really uncompetitive platform

and everything I could think of even,

I mean, maybe in some of the NASA ET

could have done okay, maybe crossing over to ST,

but unfortunately NASA just isn't in our area.

Yeah.

And we kept circling back to why put more money

into an engine we don't actually want to keep.

Yeah, that's fair.

Yeah, and you guys live up in Minnesota, right?

Yep, right around Minneapolis.

Yeah, so it's, what's your actual track season up there

like Brainerd and stuff, when does that reliably open

to reliably be not open?

Say there are events in April, sometimes there's snow.

Okay.

They're fairly risky and last event is always October,

mid-October or so.

Dang, that's a lot longer

than I thought it was going to be, but.

But they also just said it might snow

and everybody seems to be comfortable with that.

That's, it's a cultural thing.

Yeah, I've sadly I've never been there when it is snowed,

but I have videos from friends that, yep, okay.

Well, we can't do most of the long track

because it's too snowy.

We can't go down long straightaway at Brainerd.

So we go through the paddock for a bit.

The year that we did, I think it was 19, no,

it was 18 when we went to Brainerd.

18, 19, what year was that?

Yeah, it was the year I took the Accord.

So whatever year that was, sounds like 19.

19, I think.

Anyway, the year we did Brainerd, both configurations,

the day after we were there, it snowed.

And like three or four inches, like a lot,

like enough snow that would have been a problem.

That morning, the reason I remember it distinctly

is that morning it was cold.

It was low 20s, low 20s.

Something like that, yeah.

And I had a teeny, tiny battery in the Accord

and it barely started.

So I almost had a very bad day.

I almost got eaten by Minnesota there, so it was fun.

So we sort of jump into this with you having a broken Miata,

but I wanna know how your lives got to the point

where you had a broken Miata.

How did you get into this nonsense?

How did you end up with like what is,

by anybody's standards, a wildly uncompetitive car

and then wandering a good life?

Like what's the timeline for this insanity?

Well in 2010, I got a blue Honda Fit and I loved it.

It was super fun.

And for some reason I decided I wanted to learn

how to modify cars and then quickly decided

that a Honda Fit was not the right platform.

I was gonna say that's interesting.

Interesting sequence of choices getting a fit

and then deciding, I wanna make this fit awesome, maybe.

Probably not for any driving thing,

but it had fun electronics.

Right.

So then in 2013, I bought a Subaru BRZ

and started doing track days with that.

Like you just jumped right into track days,

you bought a BRZ and you're like,

I'm gonna go do track days.

Yep.

Wow.

That's it.

I do nothing, but not gonna learn sitting around.

Yeah, I mean, we do have a really good local club.

The BMW club local to us is very nice

and very welcoming to any car.

We've never owned any sort of BMW or BMW adjacent thing,

but they've always welcomed us in there

for whatever learning and then traction addigons that they do.

They've always been, I'd say very, very friendly to us

and their HBD stuff is pretty great.

So that's how you-

Did you guys know of anyone in that club?

No, I found it.

There was a local kind of car control,

driving clinic area, one of the local tech colleges

and they had an event there and it seemed decent.

You know, it was, hey, you learn how to drive your car,

focus on things, you have an instructor with you

and like, great, let's start doing that.

This is the most straightforward origin story

I've ever heard.

Yeah.

Yeah, like I'm, it's the jump for me

that is surprising, I guess,

like to go straight in, see how it works out

and yeah, I think that's it.

You didn't have like a family history of go-karts

in the yard or like dirt bikes or like anything to build on?

I did have a go-kart growing up for a few years.

But I didn't, I had no interest in cars.

Didn't want to work on them, didn't want to fix them,

barely wanted to own one, just kind of needed to own one.

You may be the first person who's ever motivated

by buying a fit and then-

Yeah, what was it about the fit

that you were like, hey, I want to do stuff to you?

I'm not sure, I mean, was it really the fit

or didn't we also have the Subaru at some point

during that time, the Outback, I mean?

That was after we got the BRZ.

That was after we got the BRZ, okay.

I mean, I can speak, I mean, for me personally,

I'm not sure what inspired you,

but I've always been fascinated by cars

and just mechanical things in general.

If it looks like a complicated machine,

I want to figure out how it works

and I'd love to play around with it

through a variety of circumstances

that very long story.

I didn't start driving until I was 28,

but by that time, we already knew the BMW Club

and their HBD and car control clinic stuffs

and I figured what better way to build confidence

than to jump into that.

And especially since when I was going to events

with Rory, a huge green flag was the fact

that they were never, oh, you're just the wife.

They were always like, well, are you co-driving?

What car did you bring?

Those sorts of questions really made me feel like

I could hang out with these people

and learn with these people

because I never had to establish myself,

no, I'm also here too.

Their first question was, well, aren't you here too?

So.

That's impressive, that's especially,

you said this was 10 years ago?

Yeah, it's definitely not the norm.

No, no, that's spectacular.

So you were going with Rory to these events

and you didn't have a driver's license?

Is that right?

Or is it pretty close?

Around.

Cause I got my car pretty soon after

you started modifying the fit.

So I just got my license relatively soon to that.

That's awesome.

Cause the Honda Fit was.

Yeah, that was a 2013.

Yeah.

So yeah, same-ish time.

That's a really easy first car to drive around.

I can tell you that.

An automatic Honda Fit, so simple.

One of my kids still has the first gen one

that I drove around for like five months.

Love that car, fantastic.

Slow, so slow.

The automatic transmission.

But it's so good.

Just don't ask it to do things it can't do

and it's very happy.

So the first track event you guys did

with the BMW Club.

What was it about that event that kept you like,

was anything spectacular about it?

Did it meet all of your hopes and dreams

or why, what was it about that

that made you decide to keep at it?

I think it was actually the first track event I did

at Brainerd with a different group.

Okay.

There was a bit underwhelming

that made me seek out something else.

For the first time I was on track,

there were three of us to an instructor

and the instructor is with one of us

and the other two hopefully followed along,

maybe, in that car.

It didn't work out great.

We really didn't know what any of us were doing.

So finding a club that had more structured instruction

seemed great, there was a classroom,

there is driving the car, you learn things in both.

That really helped me and keep me motivated, focused,

wanted to do better.

And June, during these events,

you were helping with the car, you were soaking this up,

what were you up to?

I did both.

I mean, like I said, I was very interested

in the mechanical side.

So I would try to help out there where I could,

but also I would go into the classroom sessions

and even though I wasn't yet bringing a car to HPD events,

I would so sit there and learn what I could.

Which didn't happen later.

You did start doing HPD as well.

Yeah, I did do that later,

but initially even I would come into the classroom

just to learn because I do like learning new things

and new skills, so.

You had something to say?

I did a similar thing with NASA when I first,

a friend brought me to a NASA event

and he's like, just sit in the classroom

and just learn stuff

and had a really welcoming group of people

and it's amazing how you can get sucked in

by good people, teaching other people,

makes it seem very approachable

versus signing up for an event doing that.

I've actually encouraged people to do that.

I'm like, you can find an event that a buddy's going to

and you can sit in the classroom.

It can really make you feel good about it

and make you feel comfortable signing up.

So.

Absolutely.

It's cool to hear other people

that had a similar experience with that.

Yeah, it's kind of what Becky ended up doing

for a couple of years before she started driving.

I swear she knew the classroom speech better

than I did at a certain point.

She could say, yeah, they did this thing

a little bit different

and she knew all the rules and expectations

and everything by the time she hit the track.

Like it was so second nature,

like doing it obviously would be new

but like all the rules and stuff like that.

It's like, yeah, I know, I've heard it.

Oh yeah, I've actually helped one of the times

I helped one of the beginner club instructors out

for their beginner classes

just because I had been in it so much.

I knew all the slides they used.

So when they were out or out of order,

I was like, oh no, this is usually how this person does it.

It's like, oh, that does make a lot more sense that way.

So, and then I felt a little bit sheepish about that.

Nice.

Yeah, what's your name?

Oh, I'm June.

I'm just an avid learner.

I'm the best beginner.

So you started doing this stuff

and then how did it progress from there for the both of you?

For me, I turboed the BRZ in our garage.

Sounds bold.

It was probably not my brightest move.

But you were really excited about it.

I was extremely excited.

I'm gonna do this.

I'm gonna learn, I have never taken apart anything

in this car or any car.

What was the biggest car project

that you had taken on prior to that?

Didn't we do flex fuel in it though

before turboing it or was that after?

After.

Okay.

Biggest car project was probably fixing

our mostly broken Subaru Outback.

They had redid all the suspension,

tried to fix a ton of leaks.

So many leaks.

Still leaked, didn't matter.

Cooling issues, exciting things.

Yeah, we can wax poetic about Subaru's

but Seth is currently smitten with his, I don't know,

whatever.

It's delightfully mediocre and I love it.

So how did you have the turbo swap go?

It worked.

I mean, it took a few months

but the car made good power.

It was super fast.

And then I was scared of it on track

and decided if I was actually gonna learn something

I needed to find a slower, safer car.

And that's when I bought the 1.6 liter Miata

and then immediately had a cage welded into it.

That was my next question.

I was like, appears he's a pretty solid track car.

Why did you go backwards?

Not that the Miata is backwards.

It's just a different kind of forward.

It was backwards as far

if you were just looking at horsepower progression.

Right, absolutely.

Because we made a car that was way too fast

for our skill level.

There's no getting around that.

Right.

We had to learn more

and then we could have handled something that powerful.

But at the same time, you had a Fiesta ST.

Yes, yes.

I love those cars very much.

Yeah, those aren't slow.

No, no, but it's not.

I wasn't also driving it to the same level

that you were trying to drive the BRZ at the time.

We also put a giant wing in the back

and it had a rear diffuser at the time.

Did we?

Yeah, BRZ had a diffuser, a little splitter.

Yeah.

So it was really planted for what it was.

But it's one of those things

where approaching the limits was kind of terrifying.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, most parts of the car were terrifying.

I mean, just the speed, it was a totally new experience.

And at that point, definitely regretted putting a turbo on it.

Was that like the first session out?

You were like, sweet, it works.

I've made a terrible mistake.

Like, was that the thought into the thought?

I think it took me the whole weekend to arrive at that.

Okay.

Both of them?

Both of us?

Yeah.

I mean, it was fast.

It was cool.

But I'm very glad I sold it.

Was it?

How quick of a decision was that to sell it?

Not all that fast.

I mean, I think I had dreams that this would be the BRZ

would be the Superfund Streetcar

and the Miata would be the more focused

autocross and track thing.

But as soon as I got a cage in the Miata,

I mean, street driving kind of went out the window.

So at that point, it made a lot more sense

to get a truck that could tow the Miata

instead of having a BRZ around.

Yeah.

Unfortunately, we don't have infinite yard space

to throw random vehicles

or we could have just kept adding

to the collection indefinitely.

Yeah, why not?

Yeah, it's probably,

I can probably say the same for me.

We definitely don't have much space,

so choices need to be made.

I'll just keep the pack thin.

That's it.

Having space is dangerous.

I do, in Texas, had almost infinite yard space

and at one point I had like nine cars

plus the trailer.

And yeah, it was, it can get bad.

Keep going.

It can get real bad.

Well, no, I didn't have the motorcycles then.

This was pre-motorcycles.

So this was just when I had all the cars

and it got real bad for a while.

So.

And it never really got better.

He has a Porsche on a lift that hasn't moved

and how many bikes do you have right now?

20-ish motorcycles.

So I swapped a whole bunch of cars

for a whole bunch of motorcycles

and motorcycles take up less room

and it's way better.

But yeah, there's certain things in your life

that can actually save you from ruining it more

and the lack of space is one of those things

that you think is bad

and it can actually be really good in the long run.

So I'm glad you didn't turn into me.

But I had a similar thing with cars

that I found myself going way too fast on track

and I like went down

and went down and went down

until I was running TT7 in NASA in a Civic

which was probably the same thing

that your Miata would have run in in NASA.

And that's where I was like, yeah, I feel comfortable

and I can start getting better now.

And so I feel for you dramatically.

But so you're doing,

were you still just doing HPDEs in the Miata

or did you want to do time trial?

Like where were you headed with the Miata?

What was your plan?

Did you have a plan?

I don't think I really had a plan at that point.

I thought I just wanted,

this time around,

I'm going to spend money on safety first instead of power.

And cage is very safe.

All the groups around us

for that sort of convertible require

at least a roll bar and definitely a hard top.

And there was a shop near us

that was doing just phenomenal take work

and great cage manufacturers.

So let's just do a full cage right now.

I've never intended to compete in this car.

I thought it was just going to be the perfect HPD vehicle

and that was it.

I mean, we did always keep an eye out

for various things that could be local to us.

But unfortunately,

all that really seemed to materialize

was largely autocross sort of stuff

for things that are within Minnesota anyway.

At that time.

Yeah, because you guys have Brainerd

and what's the next,

what's the track situation there?

I've driven through there a bunch and with one lab,

but I can't think of geographically

what your track situation is there.

I think the next closest to Brainerd

is Road America basically.

Yeah, Blackhawk is another,

maybe 10, 15 minutes drive time versus Road America.

Okay, and then you have to go south

basically to get to everything else.

Yeah, you mentioned on track

with the BRZ once you turboed it

that it didn't feel safe.

And was that what led you to just do a cage

immediately in the Miata?

Maybe.

I'm trying to recall exactly.

I think part of the decision was,

we knew we wanted to take it to events

and because our local organizations

at least require a roll bar

and we did research on it

and we knew that roll bars are safer

than a soft top convertible,

but not incredibly safe.

It sort of became a,

well, while we're in there,

why don't we do this sort of situation?

If I'm remembering correctly.

Yeah, that's probably it.

I'm familiar, yes.

So you did the cage and did you do the seat

and harnesses and hums all at the same time?

All at the same time.

Got it it?

Yeah.

Well, to get the cage in,

you sort of have to.

Yep, right.

And then why put the interior back in there?

It was an old 1990 Miata.

It wasn't as if the interior

was in great shape anyway.

So that was back in the day

where we could just cut up Miatas

and not feel bad about it.

It's $2,000 car, who cares?

Right, exactly.

I had a couple of those.

So cheap.

So your first event with the Miata

after all of the safety stuff that you did,

what was that like after the BRZ?

The experience was a lot more direct.

Finally having harnesses, a good seat.

I was certainly more connected to the car.

I think I felt a lot more in control.

Speeds were much, much slower.

So that seemed a bit easier.

I think it was within a year or two,

maybe within the same year

I started doing HPD events with that Miata

that I was basically at the same lap times

as the Turbo BRZ at Brainer.

Nice.

So I think the plan worked.

Clearly worked.

So I kind of want to get some lateral stories

along with your track and driving history as well.

And so like high school into college,

what were you guys into in high school?

Where'd you guys go to college?

What was, what'd you study, all that stuff?

Excuse me, for me, high school, it was all computers.

Building computers, worked at a computer repair shop.

Going to college, I started in computer engineering

and then moved into electrical engineering,

which is also where June and I ran into each other.

Right, we went to the same university.

We went to Iowa State.

I initially went in doing computer science

and then later switched to journalism,

which sort of goes back to my high school

where I was equally into nerdy things

such as computers more on the software side

and also with writing.

And I did a lot of writing in high school,

but one doesn't exactly get a major in creative writing

or English unless they plan to teach it.

And I wasn't really stoked to become a professor.

So the computer science initially for me,

which is how we had some of the same classes.

Nice.

And then we're at what point did you guys,

how old were you guys when you started

like getting the car bug?

Almost 30.

Okay, so there was a good chunk of time

in between meeting each other,

going through college and stuff like that.

So getting out of college,

computers totally makes sense for you too.

What came after college?

I guess boring jobs, normal life things.

Scott and I are fascinated when people just live

normal lives and it's like.

Yeah, so like who hurt you and when?

Like how did you get into, you know,

it's that sort of thing.

We did some nerdy things though.

We've been to our local nerd conventional whole lot

doing some cosplay sort of things and, you know,

normal geeky sort of things that I suppose

you would associate with computer nerds.

We're talking computer games, card games, role play.

Computer games mostly.

For me, computer, for sure.

Okay.

I'm not at all familiar except like by names.

What are like, give me your top two or three games,

computer games that you play?

You've been in to fall out a whole bunch.

Certainly back through that period,

we played Team Fortress 2.

Oh, there was also that.

Pretty obsessively.

Okay.

Back in the 2010s, a little out of that.

I did a bunch of scuba diving.

I guess that was my main hobby back then.

It was computers and scuba diving.

Yeah, you and I talked about that.

I don't think I've figured out where that came from.

Was that just one of those things where you're like,

hey, this sounds fun.

I'm going to go do it?

No, it started because my sister wanted to go scuba diving

when we went to Australia.

And I guess I had to do it

because my little sister was doing it

and my dad was taking the classes too.

Peer pressure.

Sure.

Total peer pressure.

It's exactly what I would tell people as an instructor,

as a scuba instructor, never do because of these reasons.

And it's absolutely what I did.

But I fell in love with it.

No one else in the family really did.

Oddly enough, Iowa State had a great scuba club.

I was known for its connection to absolutely zero options.

Or like, pretty much.

Maybe that's why there's a club there

is because they're like,

hey, we've heard of this crazy thing called water.

You know, you can go under it.

We should do this together.

Yeah, my daughter went to school there.

So I've walked around and there's not,

not only is there not much water,

but the waters there is the opposite of clear.

Yeah.

Yep.

So where do you have to go?

Other than swimming and other than diving in the pool,

like at school, like where do you go to dive

if you're in Iowa and want to go diving?

We usually found really cheap tickets to Florida.

Oh, okay.

I mean, this was back when, you know, a roundship flight,

if you watched all the deal sites and stuff,

it could be a hundred and some dollars a person,

pack a bunch of people into hotel rooms

or rent some sort of house.

Cool, let's go for the weekend and do some dives.

Diving.

Man, you remember when we were young

and like could do a bunch of stuff on a whim?

Well, don't forget, we did have to walk uphill

in the snow both ways barefoot.

Yes.

In Oddly, that town is hilly and snowy at certain times.

So.

Yeah, thank you.

It was uphill both ways.

No, I sent my daughter there with her freshman year.

She had the red fit that we passed onto my son.

And in the winter, she was like, cool,

there's some ways like I have to choose

which way I'm gonna drive.

Cause if it's slippery, I can't drive up those hills.

So she had to drive around different ways to get in.

So yeah, I'm actually familiar with,

everybody was like, well, it's not that bad.

I'm like, at times it's awfully cold and windy.

So it's like the real Midwest,

even though us, Michiganders, Minnesotans

don't like to think of it as the real Midwest,

like it still is.

It's true.

I feel like I just validated you guys.

I feel so happy.

Thank you.

Yeah, absolutely.

So.

Were you also said that you became a scuba instructor

and I also happened to know that you do some

in performance driving instruction as well.

What's, what kind of drove that in you to go

not only do a thing, but then start teaching others?

You know, I'd always kind of done that sort of thing

through maybe starting in middle school,

doing some mentorship things,

volunteering throughout high school in college.

I was a TA for a bit.

So the teaching side was always pretty fun.

And especially having students that were just

really motivated and engaged and wanted to do this thing

was just a super fun experience for me.

Did you find it came easy for you?

Yeah, I think so.

I mean, it wasn't an overnight thing.

I like I said, I started doing some mentorship things

in middle school.

It was certainly a slow build over the years.

But a lot of fun.

June, did you ever get into the whole scuba diving?

Oh, no, no, no.

I'm not really a fan of super enclosed spaces.

So.

I wisely made the decision when, you know,

he was suggesting it when we very first started dating

that it would not be for me.

And I think that was the right call.

Yeah, I will not be joining you here.

Cool for you.

I'm super glad you're into that.

But I don't think that's my thing.

So we know Rory's things, computer games,

some Comic-Con stuff, and then scuba diving.

What are your things, June?

Well, definitely also with computers and nerdery

such as Comic and did a lot of anime-cons

when I was in university too.

Also a lot of creative sort of writing and things.

Sort of dabble in that, dabble in drawing as well.

Okay.

Nothing too prolific, but then again, who really is?

June did draw our team logo.

This is true.

The Dead Bear.

Yes.

I didn't know that.

Yeah.

Where you can get the shirt with this Dead Bear on it

at shop.deadbear.racing.

I should go there.

I should.

How about this?

I'll do a.

Next.

We should also make sure that websites still work.

We really should.

I was going to say like next time you guys

want one of my t-shirts, we'll just do a shirt exchange.

That sounds perfect.

Yeah, it does actually.

Assuming we still have a shirt shop.

Yeah.

I'll put that link in the show notes and good luck.

Maybe you can purchase said site and jokes on them.

Where did the team name come from?

Yeah, that's good.

So my dad also had a 2002 Miata at the same time

that had my 1990.

The superior Miata, yes.

Way superior.

You're right, you're into that.

1.8, VVT, 6B transmission, limited slip diff.

It had so many parts I kept on teasing my dad

like, hey, if you go wait for the weekend,

maybe the transmission leaves.

I don't know.

So he was driving it to work in Wisconsin

and a 350 pound black bear hit the front left of the car.

The bear hit the car or the car?

The bear hit the car.

Bear hit the left front wheel.

If it was actually bear fur in the bead of the,

between the tire and the wheel, it ran right into it.

His dad was fine.

His dad was completely fine.

He misjudged whether he thought he could get out

in front of the car and just smooshed into the side of it.

Yeah.

So the car was totaled, but we could get it back

from insurance and we had a bunch of parts.

I assume the bear was totaled too?

Yeah, that's the name of the deal.

The bear is dead.

Yeah, did not make it.

Unfortunately, but to honor the bear

and the sacrifice that the bear made

towards our racing career,

we decided to name the team after that poor bear.

Okay, so you bought the car back.

Did your dad buy the car back?

Oh yeah, he bought it back.

It was $500 from insurance.

Oh my God.

I mean, just, you can't say no to that.

No.

It's, that's always wild to me.

The insurance company gives you a bunch of money

for the car.

They take the car and they're like,

hey, we'll sell it back to you for like pennies

on the dollar of what we just gave you.

It was already in my garage too,

so it was super convenient.

Yeah.

We just took parts from the one Miata

and put in the other Miata

and a bunch of the bonus parts into the basement

and then found some way to sell the rest.

I was gonna say, if you had all the good bits,

why didn't the 1.6 Miata go a lot faster

with all the good bits?

Or did you not wanna go that deep into it?

It was a consideration for a while,

whether we do a 1.8 or a turbo 1.8.

This is when the 1.6 broke.

We were thinking maybe we do that,

maybe we do the K-Swap.

It was part of what we were trying to math out.

Yeah, I think if NASA had been more of a thing

in our area, I probably would have ended up

with a turbo 1.8.

Because I think at the time,

looking at the points in the math,

it would have worked really well in like a TT-4,

TT-5 somewhere in there.

Sounds good.

And then ST as well.

But you guys have a drive.

Like every NASA event is a drive for you guys, right?

Like significantly.

Yeah, they tried to do one event at Brainerd

and I don't think anyone other than my dad and I signed up.

I heard from another person at Autocross,

said, yeah, hey, we're going to this NASA event

at Brainerd whatever weekend.

Said, oh, no, you're not, SCCA is up there.

Like, well, that's weird.

Email the NASA coordinator and he said,

oh, I didn't think anyone signed up.

Yeah, we'll refund you.

Okay.

Not a hit then.

Wild.

So at what point did you think that you really wanted

to turn this kind of hobby into like competition?

I was at a DE event at Brainerd with the BMW club

and they combined the intermediate and advanced groups

and all of a sudden I was driving next to cars

in corners and that was the absolute coolest thing

and it was at that point like,

I don't know how I'm doing this.

I am.

We will figure out a way.

What was it about that side-by-side experience?

Like, was it just cool?

Cause you were doing the same thing actively

with other people or were you like,

you're doing it with other people,

but I kind of want to beat you.

It's a long, long thought.

Yeah, it's a long pause, a lot of thinking.

Just the proximity driving and the skill required

to do that well was what really got me excited.

Like I'm basically just here kind of present,

but I want to be somebody who can do this fast

with other cars.

It's almost a common thread.

I'm hearing from you is like this,

almost like skill acquisition thing.

Like you're willing to jump into things

to try and like do a new thing, to learn something.

Is that sound right?

June's nodding, but...

Yeah, this tracks with a lot of things I've done

in my life, yep.

Yeah, it's almost as if,

it's almost as if when your brain

sometimes encounters a problem,

you want to latch on to it because it's interesting.

And you're like, okay, sure, I can do that.

You know, how hard can it be?

It's a dangerous question.

So is it the unknown that you're drawn to

or is it the challenge you're drawn to?

For me, it's the problem solving challenge.

Okay.

For sure, that's pretty much all aspects of life.

Fun stuff, work stuff, problem solving

is just interesting.

Okay.

And what's been the most interesting problem solving

in driving that you've found?

I think that's still an ongoing question.

Yeah, if you have an answer,

just let me know after the show or something

and I can fix everything.

Yeah.

Yeah, listeners, tell us what you think.

If you guys know Rory, okay.

Because you, when you did,

what was your first competition event

that you actually decided to do?

Sunday Cup at Heartland Park.

Yeah, because when we went to track day picnic,

we were just doing HPD there with the 1.6.

And then the fit the second time.

Right, because the Gremlins ate the engine

and we weren't sure what was wrong with it.

So I assume at that event,

you guys were watching the track sprint

and the GLTC races, stuff like that.

We did from on top of the pavilion.

Yeah.

Such a beautiful track there.

It's so good.

That's still in my memory, one of the best events.

I really hope we go back.

We'll see.

It'd be nice.

It would be nice.

Hey, Revmash goes there a bunch.

Let's go.

They do.

I couldn't go both times this year,

but I would like to get back there.

Yeah, I know last time I went there too

was the first year I had the OS Geiken

in the back of the car,

but I was still on my previous suspension setup

and the car just did not want to turn.

It was so bad.

And I was doing okay that weekend,

but like, oh my God,

it was such a miserable thing to try and drive.

That's a heck of a track to not be able to turn it.

Yeah.

I had to drag the brakes so deep into the corner

just to like try to free up the rear end.

I ate a lot of tires that weekend, but.

So Sunday Cup, did the competition live up to your

hopes and aspirations,

or were you just kind of doing your mental data collection

and seeing what it was like?

Well, I can say I was never very interested

in doing time attack,

but it seemed like a great way

to just get into something competitive car wise

because I'd never done that.

I mean, neither of us had previously.

Right.

I mean, I guess autocross,

but we didn't take that too seriously.

We mostly did practice days.

So this was our full big competition event.

And it was real seat time.

You know, it was seat time more for actual stakes

because we still wanted to do well

even though we weren't, you know,

dreaming of doing time attack for life.

We still wanted to perform well.

And the more opportunities we had to get better,

I think it gave you a lot of skill on the track.

Absolutely.

What was it about the competition

that I don't know helped focus you

or like different kind of motivation?

It was really clear to see where I could go

with basically the exact same car

or even when we started off with stock suspension,

having like Tom McGormick drive my car.

Okay, well, this is what I could do eventually

or get close to that sort of thing.

It was a lot easier to see where the target was

versus a DE where, okay, I'm the only person here

with the 1.6 liter Miata.

I don't know what is fast.

Am I 20 seconds off pace?

Am I lap record holder?

Who knows?

You know, everybody has very dissimilar cars too.

You know, especially in a community D

that it's different cars, different skill levels

and different track prep as well.

So hard to measure up when somebody's driving

an Audi TT and somebody else might just be in a,

all, you know, basically a crossover.

Yeah.

So how did you feel you did?

Like, were you happy with yourself or?

We didn't finish last.

Well, when we were in, do you mean in HBDE

or when we were in Sunday Cup?

Well, I'm sure you won HBDE.

We all won HBDE.

Thank you.

Champions.

Yeah, our first event, we didn't finish last.

That was kind of our goal or a pretty well-spoken goal.

Like let's just, let's do something.

We were on a stock suspension Honda Fit.

Didn't have a lot of hope.

We'd never been to the track before, but we'll try.

You almost got third at PIIRI.

Oh yeah, PIIRI was our best finish in Sunday Cup.

We were a thousandth of a second off podium.

Ooh.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was a little frustrating.

That's hard.

Yeah, did you guys do the quick math

and see how far that was?

No, but I knew exactly where I lost it too.

Okay.

Oh well.

Yeah.

And June, during kind of this move for Rory

where you was competition ever exciting for you?

Like ever a thought that like, yeah,

I'd kind of wanted to do this too?

I'm not an incredibly competitive person.

I love learning things and I love encountering problems

and sort of figuring out the shape of them.

I like problem solving, but I've never been the kind

of person who wants to outdo someone.

I'm much more collaborative.

So I could certainly do competition,

but I wouldn't get the same.

I don't know, I've never felt the drive to do it, I suppose.

Sure.

Now, things where there's a lot more teamwork involved,

I suppose this equally goes for a lot of games

that I play, computer games, I mean.

Anything that's more cooperative,

I'm much more enthusiastic about.

And when I can learn a new skill or jump into a new thing,

it's adjacent to Rory's liking the problem solving acquisition,

but for me, it's just trying to gather as much knowledge

as possible like I'm hoarding it.

So as now, how often do you get to drive on track?

Not in this much anymore.

With the pandemic, I made a choice to sell the Fiesta ST

at the time and get a more reliable daily,

because I knew it was only a matter of time

before that thing did forward things,

and I would end up having to spend a lot of money to fix it.

And as we got more track focused with the Miata,

Cajinkan, and so on, I kind of wanted to do it

and go on, I kind of wanted to focus on one bag of problems

for a car instead of multiple ones.

So at the moment, I don't have a great track car as my daily,

but I don't know, I don't say it's completely off the table

as far as just doing fun track events.

But I don't see myself competing

just because it's not what I find fun about it.

Sure.

I suppose the only exception to that is if we ever,

through weird life circumstances,

go into something that does co-driving,

that'd be kind of fun.

There are rallies in this state.

Yeah, that could be more interesting than just, you know.

We've had twice now a couple who do rallies

as a couple, and they're very fun.

It's, God, that's such a wild sport anyway.

But how, so in your kind of quest for hoarding knowledge,

like a dragon sitting on a pile of gold,

how have you found your time working in the paddock

with Rory, like getting the car prepped,

helping manage it on a weekend?

Like, what's that experience like for you?

I see that that's always,

that's a very variable answer

because some weekends are incredibly rewarding

because everything can either go super well

or we have a problem that we identify and we can solve

and then that feels very gratifying.

But sometimes it is a little frustrating, I admit,

where, you know, we're chasing a problem

and we can't quite figure out what it is.

But we do get there eventually

and then that's when you get that payoff.

It's like, oh, we figured out the culprit

and now we can, you know, we've got that nailed down

so we can move on to the next thing

because there's always gonna be another issue

or goal you're chasing with a race car.

Even if nothing's broken,

there's always gonna be something

that we're gonna wanna improve on it.

Yes, always and forever.

So...

It's a moving target.

Yeah, stupid hobby.

So you did, how long were you guys doing Sunday Cup for?

Two and a half years.

Okay, so pretty good stents.

And were you guys at the first Heartland Park?

If it wasn't the first, it was,

there were maybe three grid life events at Heartland Park.

I know there were two.

I don't remember if there was a third.

We might have been at both of them then.

We didn't go to the last one.

We went to two though, there were at least three.

So probably, yeah, the first one.

Yeah.

Yeah, there were a lot of people doing

the SCCA Track Night in America.

And apparently someone talked them

into allowing all the GLTC cars

to also do Track Night in America.

Nice.

That's probably a poor decision, but...

Probably.

It was in my call.

So what were your kind of fondest memories,

biggest lessons coming out of Sunday Cup?

Oh, definitely the people are a lot of our fondest memories.

We've met so many great people going through Sunday Cup.

There's this person who is driving this awesome car

that she named Boone Cake.

I don't know if you've ever heard of that one.

No, it sounds like a terrible car

that has a stupid engine.

The driver's pretty great though.

Yeah, she's okay.

Sorry about that.

Yeah, we've met a lot of great people.

Yeah, that definitely cemented our decision

to want to continue with the Great Life Group

for competition because it was very fun.

The people.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

Yeah, you guys, June, you talking about

that first couple BMW events,

people welcoming you.

It sounds like you guys have had a pretty,

hopefully for the most part,

a pretty solid interaction with people at the track.

Well, I say that we're very choosing

and if we go to an event and we get,

I'd say the wrong vibe from people,

then we don't invest our time with those people then.

Yeah, we just don't go back.

Yeah, that's fine.

I mean, it's, the hobby is too expensive

and life is too short to spend the time and energy

with people who give you a less fun time, I'd say.

Yeah.

I'm writing this down.

So, what was your experience

of writing this down?

So, what was your decision to go from Sunday Cup

into GLTC?

How'd that go?

Kind of just finally had enough free funds

to start on a case swap.

Found the engine.

We were able to sell our car.

At a very convenient time, which sold it in the fall.

The fit.

All the fit, yeah.

Yeah.

Didn't really expect to sell a track car in September, October,

but we did.

So, hey, there was the fund for the winter

to get the Miata ready to go.

Did you do that swap yourself, like in your garage?

Yep.

Okay, that's like some serious mechanic work,

mechanic work, like proper mechanic work.

Yep.

We did the engine swap.

We gutted all the wiring and did all the rewiring.

We did all the fuel system, the brakes,

the safety, the fire ignition, sorry, suppression system.

Yeah, everything other than the cage,

the two of us have done on that car.

Yeah.

I guess with your computer background, electronics and

wiring comes maybe more intuitive to you than it does me.

Yeah, I mean, I don't mind the wiring part at all.

I think it's kind of fun.

It's a little slow because I want to do a really nice job.

But yeah, that was great.

That was fairly straightforward.

Zero wiring issues after we did the entire car,

which was huge.

I mean, that was pretty epic.

Yeah.

Of all the things we might want to improve at some point,

I'd say the wiring is not...

I mean, we might add to it if we have a new component,

but like everything in there is super solid.

Nice.

Yeah, that is not always the case with almost any component

that gets touched with electronics.

So, yeah, that's pretty high praise, I think.

So, your first outing for GLTC was where and when?

Pit race 2024 was our first official race.

Yeah, that fall.

How'd that go?

I had a good time.

Yeah.

I mean, we didn't do spectacularly well overall,

but we raced folks.

We didn't end up last.

We didn't crash our car.

Yeah.

You know, no contacts, no incidents.

You didn't end up in a barrier.

Nope.

I would say pretty good weekend.

Nice way to end the year.

And it's such a pretty track there, too.

It is.

We're really going to miss that track.

And that's, so that was at the end of the year

and you guys started to swap the previous winter?

Yes.

Okay.

And I assume it just took you that long

or did you have some shakedown to do?

What did that interim time look like?

I think we got the car ready May-ish, end of May.

Yeah.

That was the first track outing.

We got it loaded up nine o'clock at night.

The alignment wasn't done at all.

The wheels kind of both planted at each other in the front.

Yeah.

But it could drive on the trailer and we decided

we'll just go to the hotel, sleep,

and then we'll fix the alignment the next day at the track.

Yeah.

This was that Brainerd,

which is just a couple of hours away from us.

So it was an easier decision to do that

than if we were going to road America or something.

Right.

And how to go?

Not great.

Oil starved almost immediately after we fixed the brakes.

We forgot end links for the sway bars.

My mom was coming up,

so she was able to grab them from her garage.

Tell you driving the car with no sway bars is just kind of weird.

Yeah.

Not recommended.

I did that earlier this year by accident as well.

I wouldn't say it's sketchy.

It's just dumb.

Sluggish.

Yeah.

Just not sure what we're doing here.

Yeah.

But like 13 pounds of oil pressure at 5,500 RPM,

probably not how I want to keep the engine alive.

And since it was a DE event,

I'm not going to push it.

It's a track I will never race at.

I don't need to blow up the engine the first time this car sort of runs.

What was the issue?

Oil pickup was too far from the bottom of the pan.

Baffling wasn't good enough.

Eventually just put an acu something.

The issue is that it's a case swap to put it in a nutshell.

But we then learned from a lot of more intelligent case swap people

who had a lot more experience than us.

But that's what I mean.

That's what I mean.

That it's always a learning and problem solving sort of thing.

But you had a good enough time at pit race that you decide to keep doing it.

Yeah.

Absolutely.

And then so out of your experience at pit race coming into 2025,

did you have goals?

Did you have things that you wanted to achieve?

Like what did that transition from into 2025 look like?

I think my main goal is do enough clean races

so I could earn a full license in GLTC.

So wherever we finish, don't be a hazard.

Don't cause dump shenanigans.

Try to get the car reliable enough

so they can really get comfortable and improve.

I accomplished one of those two.

The reliability, we're working on it.

I'd say it was a lot more reliable this year.

That's what I'm saying.

I mean, the transmission did transmission things,

but like overall it was pretty good, I think.

The brakes only failed once this year.

So that was an improvement.

I mean, that was early in the year though, right?

It was early in the year.

Yeah.

Then you got ABS and then everything's fine.

The ABS is magical.

I do love that.

So how do you feel about how your year progressed?

Both of you.

I think I'm overall optimistic,

but I really wish that we had the car put together at more events

so we could do real practice things

and try to dial in the car,

dial in my comfort with the car.

So more just thinking towards next year

and trying to do what we can

to really get out to the normal fun DE events

that we usually do a bunch of over the year.

And this year we did one,

and that was interrupted by brake failure,

June having to drive five hours to get more parts,

I guess normal Miata things.

That was brainered, wasn't it?

Yep.

So I drove two hours here to grab the,

I mean it's about, it's more like two and a half I guess,

but to get the old parts that we knew worked

and then turn right around and drove back

so we can get them on the car.

Oh, that was the brake booster delete kit, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, the brake master almost immediately failed.

I think it was like four laps.

Like one of the seals pressed in too far?

Yeah.

And so it no longer acted as a seal anymore.

Yeah.

Which is bad.

Yeah, the thing about seals,

it's supposed to keep one thing away from another thing.

Yeah, it's as if it's supposed to seal something.

Indeed.

You know, as it says on the tin.

Yeah.

So next year you're looking at doing more

just test practice days outside of competition

and you work on, you said your comfort level.

Is that right?

Yeah, absolutely.

I don't have a lot of confidence in the car.

I would say most of the times when I hit the brakes,

I don't know, maybe we die, maybe it stops, who knows.

Okay.

Certainly not the comfort level I had in the fit

or renting a friend's car for lemons.

There's a lot more confidence in all those other things.

So I need time outside of competition to build that confidence.

But I will say, I think overall this year,

we have been making the car more reliable.

Beyond the clutch finally dialing at this last race.

Unlike the previous year,

we weren't constantly pulling out the transmission and fixing things.

Yeah, we only pulled the transmission once this year.

It's a record for us.

Relatively speaking, that means that we're on an upward trend.

I do actually think that's a very good sign that the car,

we're finding and solving more of the problems with it

so that it is a much more reliable vehicle.

Yeah.

It makes me a lot more optimistic about next year.

And I do think that we should try to find more opportunities

for you to rent other cars too, just to...

So we don't have to fix something.

But it gives you more seat time.

Absolutely.

It lets you keep doing track stuff

and in some ways it's a lot more economical

than towing or Miata in faraway places.

Absolutely.

Lemons is good for getting a lot of laps in.

It is. We've had a lot of fun lemons.

Yeah, I keep meaning to have Bug Joe

and the Garage Heroes crew to...

I should do that next year.

You do need to do a lemons race, Scott.

I do.

Joe is super solid braised with.

Yeah. I get that impression.

So next year you don't have the goal

to get your license because you have it.

And so there's...

I don't want to say less of a imperative

to stay super, super clean.

And I'm sure you want to stay super, super clean.

But there's not that thing of getting your license

on the backside of that.

So next year, getting comfortable with the car

outside of competition.

And then what about inside of competition?

My big goal is making sure that I have the pace

to have a lot of fun battles the whole time.

To have more pace to be around more cars

more of the time.

Absolutely.

All right.

Do you have the data to tell you how much you need to pick up for that?

I mean, you guys have to do data.

Like I'm talking to you guys.

You guys have to have data traces all the time.

Yeah. All the lap times are published.

So we can see exactly where we need to be.

Do you know what you need out of yourself then?

Yeah.

Do you want to say that publicly

or just hold it inside?

It depends on the track.

A couple seconds.

But it feels obtainable.

Absolutely.

I mean, it's things that I even did at pit race

in some of the test sessions.

So I know I can do it.

We're going to make a bunch of improvements to the car,

wider tires.

We're going to fix the brakes yet again

so the pedal feels normal-ish

instead of a squishy weird thing.

What are you going to do there?

Just curious.

We're going to go back to the other

Wilwood master cylinder we used last year

or earlier this year.

This time, though, it's going to be perfect,

so I'm not concerned.

This time, we're going to have the old setup

just along with us so that if it fails,

I don't have to drive back to grab it.

I think that's the more important point here.

Yep.

Is the same bore size

and everything?

So the Wilwood is a one inch

and right now we have the stock 7 eighths.

And that just doesn't feel great.

I don't think it's helping my whole confidence

in the brakes working.

I promise you it's not.

Yeah, we can get more technical offline.

Which front calipers do you have

real quick?

The AFCOs.

Yeah, you need a one inch, my friends.

It was amazing for four laps

until the brakes failed.

Yeah.

I had a 15-16th master

and I still went with a one inch,

so yeah.

You're a...

Okay, I'm getting it now.

I get it.

June, what's your...

So you've done

plenty of race calling

for Rory at this point

and obviously helping with

track vibes and helping with the car

and stuff like that.

How do you think this season went?

As I mentioned, I think that

it's been a

trajectory that's been moving

more and more positive.

We keep...

I think the car

does keep getting better

and we do keep finding ways to

improve its reliability.

really appreciated

that we didn't have to take

pull the engine multiple times

or pull the transmission

multiple times because it is

such a pain when you're doing

a K engine in a Miata.

So I

felt that that kept getting

better and better.

Mostly it's

trying to find

then

the next thing to improve

and trying to find

what is an easy thing that we

can tweak

here.

Recognizing

saying, you know,

the brakes are super squishy.

Is there something we can do

now to solve that?

Is that a future us problem?

Is that something that we can solve

between events?

All those

sorts of things are

constantly moving targets to hit.

Sure.

the less that we need to do

between weekends,

I consider that is

also an improvement as well.

Yeah.

If we're not

scheduling, you know,

all the nights after work

weekends between track events

are wrenching on the car.

I feel that

helps our energy levels

a lot. We do need to focus

on racing.

Yeah.

The performance gain

of having a reliable car

is real

for sure.

What are

your goals for next year?

Can either be for you or for

Dead Bear.

I think

like I mentioned,

just continuing

to hit the moving target

having the car being more reliable,

more settled.

So we have the mental space

then to both be able to take brakes

and then really focus in

on improving the race track.

Sorry, race craft.

Especially

if we're not constantly

wrenching on the car, that gives him more time in the sim.

That gives him more

time focusing on

looking at the data and then

seeing things we might have missed

that we could tweak.

Because

as you guys probably know, if you're constantly

trying to fix problems,

then you're not

really focusing on yourself

both

holistically and on

yourself as a racing driver.

Yeah, if you're

constantly watching gauges

and nervous about

what might happen if you do

X and Y,

it makes it really hard to focus on

like, oh, I want to be a little

a little earlier on the wheel

here and like a little later

on the brakes coming off from here.

Like, no, you're like, oh, I hope my car

doesn't explode.

Yeah, if you can't

trust the brakes in the corner

then you're not considering, hey, maybe

I can just wait a little bit

here and then

go harder on the brakes here.

if you're

driving back home from an event

thinking about the transmission you're going to have to pull,

you're not thinking about, oh,

I can get all this time

for the next event on the sim

really get practice and dial in there.

Yeah, the car

is like the base level

like you need to have a car

to be able to go do the

thing, but even if the car isn't

doing the thing, then it's hard

like you can't, like the hierarchy

stops there.

It's hard to do anything when

the car is just not cooperating.

Well,

what

does your season

look like next year?

You're going to try to get to

a bunch of

competition and

a little bit of

practice, equal parts?

We need to know what the schedule

looks like for

grid life and we don't know that yet.

But we're definitely going to try to do a lot more

local events.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think I've seen some teasers from

different clubs

or just guessing based on

what their schedule looked like for the past couple

years.

They're definitely a bunch of events

we can hop to and

have a bunch of fun at. Just

relax,

get better, enjoy ourselves, have

pseudo-relaxing weekends.

That would be amazing.

What's that like?

He's got how to do this. He's been trying to do that for years.

Sounds amazing.

I know.

I do find,

relatively speaking, lemons is a little more

relaxing.

That comes with a whole list of caveats,

obviously.

We're

helping fix somebody else's car.

It's not

that transmission we're pulling

when it gets back to the garage at home.

It reduces

the number of

balls in the air that you're juggling.

Well,

somebody else is driving. You just kind of

hang out. Yeah.

I'm usually on the radio still talking

with them. Fair.

I could hang out.

I will say too that your

guys' paddock food situation

quite good.

Thank you.

His mom's amazing.

He wrote America.

Yeah.

She'll come up because that's pretty close for them too.

She'll come up and she'll bake

a whole bunch of baked goods

for people.

Sometimes if we go to events, she'll send us

with a little Tupperware food too.

Yeah.

It's a Midwestern mom thing.

I'm trying to remember which event it was,

but I feel like we parked

our van and you immediately walked up

to me with a Tupperware

full of

sugar and you were like, would you like one?

I'm like, of course I would

but get away from me.

But after I have one

sort of thing.

Well, where can people

find

out more about you guys

and

follow your racing exploits?

I'd say best place is Instagram.

We're at Dead Bear Racing.

Post sometimes.

Okay.

And maybe there's a website.

Maybe there's not.

You know, I own the Dead Bear dot racing domain.

So yeah, fun fact.

You can own dot racing domains.

Yep.

Always a good time.

But definitely Instagram.

If you want to get ahold of us,

best spot.

I just want to say that

before we go, I just want to say that

you two are the least

racing has ruined my life

interview that I think we've ever done.

Everybody else like you

come away from an interview and you feel

and this is true for Scott and I as well.

Like we can tell the stories about how racing ruined our lives.

But you come away going, yeah

their life could have been better if they didn't go racing.

And you two are the most

like collected

racing is positive people we've ever interviewed.

It's phenomenal.

It makes me want to go racing again.

Thank you.

I do try to keep in mind

this is a hobby.

We sometimes joke,

we don't get this done.

We're going to lose the shop.

The fake reality TV drama

and all that.

It's a hobby at the end of the day.

We are doing this for fun.

We're not making any money of this.

Definitely not.

If we're not having good time,

then why are we doing it?

Then we need to change something about how we're going about it.

Yeah.

I like that.

I like that clean slate.

If you're not having fun, don't do it.

Cool.

We'll appreciate the time

coming and hanging out with us.

Mothman has been here

the entire time

soaking it in.

Well, thank you.

I'll see you guys at track walking podcast

on all the things.

We may or may not post on those things.

The discord link

is where we're

sharing soup recipes

right now, I think.

Talking about

how people want to be better than

Seth.

Yeah.

It's usually a good time.

Cool.

Well, thank you guys.

We'll do it for us this week.

I'm Scott.

I'm Seth.

I'm June.

And I'm Rory.

We're track walking and we'll talk to you next week.

0:00

83:50

214 - Hobby is Too Expensive and Life Too Short (Rory and June Lonergan)

turboed

Mazda Miata

1.6 engine

Honda Fit

ECU

Subaru Brz

BMW

Subaru Outback

automatic transmission

turbo swap

Ford Fiesta ST

rear diffuser

cage

Honda Civic

TT7

Miata

roll bar

Brainerd

Road America

Blackhawk

lap times

VVT

Audi Tt

sway bars

oil pressure

brake booster delete kit

About this episode

Original notes