GHiT 0744: Scott Robertson - Year in Review and Our Coach for 2026

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From the great halls of their house, there are assembled three who hope to one day be the world's greatest driving heroes.

Created from the cosmic legends of the universe, comes our team captain, the vision, Bill Fischer.

And their soon-to-be wonder woman, Vicky Fischer.

And our captain marvel and head flight trainee, Jennifer Scriptjunk.

Their mission, to fight injustice, share what is right and wrong to get you out of your house,

and come out racing with them, and serve all mankind.

They are the Garage Heroes in training team.

Welcome to the Garage Heroes in training podcast, reporting from the frozen tundra of North America.

We're all freezing right now. Anyway, Miss Vicky, we have a guest.

We do.

One of our paves.

Hi.

His name is Scott. He likes to say hi.

Hi.

Welcome, Scott.

Hi.

How are you?

So, Mr. Robertson, you've had quite the year.

Yeah. It's been different, but it's been good.

Yeah.

Different by design.

Little conscientious, you know, hey, let's be nice to future, Scott, and let's race

when we're racing and instructing or instructing and never between the two shall meet

in most instances. Is that that scheme work out for you?

Yeah, it was a very intentional decision this year.

The, you know, I had been doing a lot of instructing and driving on the same weekend.

And, you know, as things do, everything progresses.

So I kept wanting to get more competitive, but also wanted to, you know, be a better

instructor.

And so, you know, kept pouring more and effort into both of them.

And, you know, really for three, four seasons, I've just plateaued as a wheel to wheel

driver and wasn't enjoying it very much anymore.

And was just kind of wondering like, why, why am I doing it this way?

And so I was kind of ushered the opportunity to take what, you know, started as instructing

with organizations and move that into coaching of my own and decided that, well, let's do

coaching on these weekends where I only coach.

I'm not trying to do, you know, work with an organization.

I'm not trying to race.

I'm only there to coach.

And, but I wasn't done with competitive driving either.

I wanted to, you know, I wanted to see if I still had it sort of thing.

Or at least a little bit, right?

Yeah.

And the desire is definitely still there.

And turns out through some experiences this year.

That be as bad of a driver as I thought I was, as I thought I might have been the last few

years.

So that's been, it's been all, all positives.

So you had, if I recall on the wayback machine, you had a bit of a struggle bus with your

Miata engine setup routine.

I'm being nice.

Yeah.

1E23 was a hard year for the, wait, 23, 24.

Thank you.

24.

Yeah.

24 was a hard year for engine things.

Through no fault.

It's just, you know, this is how engine things go when you change them.

They always, while you're in there and then the while you're in there is turn into,

you know, hey, maybe this and then, you know, can't leave well enough alone.

And then you end up pretty much writing a season off because of intermittent or consistent issues

of unknown origin that are very easy.

Once you figure them out, but not easy in this, in the situation.

So, so combining that with your excellent coaching and I know your priorities are with

your students and the results that you've got.

I mean, besides Peter missing by like 0.003 seconds.

I mean, you know, you pretty much had a more than a modicum of success, shall we say?

You know, it's not surprising you down selected and said, listen, I can focus on one thing

and one thing only because I'm not really good for myself and my driving or I'm not

really good at helping my students and neither one of those is worth doing halfway.

So, you know, I think it was a wise decision because, you know, if you're going to work

that hard, you might do endurance racing and just totally kill yourself.

Yeah.

Do you feel like you're just hitting burnout?

I don't think it was burnout.

I think what it was is I was beginning to question a whole lot of my skills and

abilities and, you know, is it worthwhile putting this much effort and resources into,

you know, whether it's the car, my driving, coaching, things like that.

Like it's just, but what I felt like I was actually running up against was just a

bandwidth limit on a given weekend.

There's only so much that I can do.

And there was a good year, year and a half in there where I was not only working with

GridLife, the racing organization.

I was also coaching one or two drivers of on my own and trying to drive competitively.

And there's just no, no time in there.

So the whole idea of reviewing my own video, my own data, thinking over what I need to

do just with kind of how I am as a person.

That was the last thing that got worked on.

And so my position with GridLife and my coaching clients, they would always come

first.

And so basically I would just keep an eye on the time.

It's like, all right, half an hour to race.

All right.

Now I need to go get ready to get in the car.

Yeah.

Maybe.

But I wasn't, didn't really like think of like where I really like really dive in.

Like where can I improve?

What do I need to work on?

And so I was just met with the same limitation, you know, race weekend after

race weekend for really for years.

Yeah.

It just sounds like you just need to break apart whether you're going to be

coaching or you're going to be racing.

Exactly.

And just you can't do it all at one time.

Exactly.

And I think it, you know, I certainly think it would be different.

You know, I've spoken with you guys and as well as some other drivers about

you're doing coaching and endurance racing.

And I think that's a little bit different because, you know, you're sharing

a car, you're out of the car for longer, but like you're really just

able to focus on one place and one time.

But when I was working with the organization, it's like I'm looking

at when I have to be at this meeting.

And then right after this meeting, I need to be on grid to help direct

traffic.

And then right after that, I've got like 20 minutes before I need to

get in the car.

And right afterwards, I need to meet with this drive.

Like it was just.

That sounds exhausting.

Yeah.

And that was three days per event.

And then the hangover took over.

Yeah.

And then it's like, man, like I, it's just not that much fun anymore.

You need pacing.

You need to pace yourself.

And so that's what this year was about was to kind of do a

hard line divorce between my driving, especially my competitive

driving and my coaching.

And with really only doing coaching on the weekend and

granted, I'd still have like five drivers.

You know, it's not a slow weekend for me, but really was had a

lot more energy, a lot more focus to give drivers enjoyed it

a whole lot more.

It wasn't as exhausted at the end of the day.

It was still tired for sure, but wasn't exhausted.

And then on those weekends that I went out and drove, like I

broke my personal best at my home track twice this year that

stood for four years.

And honestly, it's probably one of the worst laps I've ever

driven at that track.

I felt like, and I still comfortably broke my PB.

So there's margin there.

And, you know, the one lap of America, which was at the very

beginning of the year, we went in with a very strict,

straightforward plan and that went remarkably well too.

How many years have you been doing this already?

The one lap.

No, just, just between your coaching and driving.

Um, I've been doing instructing or coaching and driving since

2019.

Yeah.

And this year was the first year that I divorced the two.

So five years.

So does it feel like

popping a bubble?

What do you mean?

Well, um, sometimes that, that when, when we start out at

this, we have so much adrenaline and we're building and we

could do it all.

And we're just wrapped up in, in the joy of it.

Sure.

And then things start taking a shift a little bit.

And then it's, it's not that it's not fun.

It's just that

letting the air out of, out of something is what it feels like.

It's like you've been holding everything up for so long and

trying to keep everything balanced and juggling the balls.

You're juggling the balls and all of a sudden you just let

everything fall because, because, I mean, it's the adrenaline

that keeps us going.

But once you realize that the adrenaline's not there because

now it's becoming work.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think, I think how I would put it is like you said,

it's almost like the beginning of a relationship.

You've got those romantic jetters and you've got the, you

know, that spark and that fizzle and stuff like that.

Um, and that will sustain you through some exclusive

excruciating times.

Yes.

Um, but it's not sustainable.

Uh, and now I'm speaking of racing in particular,

that the efforts and the work, I mean, we used to drive

our race car to the track.

And, you know, we, we did that for very specific reasons.

Um, but there was a point where, you know, we

chose to start to tow it for sustainability reasons.

Um, and then even after that, you know, definitely can't

say it got easier, definitely got different after that point.

But still, you know, Becky was always kind of a vital

integral part of my racing and of hers as well, of course,

but, uh, you know, without her on those race weekends,

like the car wouldn't have gotten touched very much because

I had other things to do when I wasn't in the car where,

you know, a lot of the other drivers I, uh, raced with,

you know, they had friends, uh, you know, if their

friends needed to help, certainly they'd lend a

hand, but really for most part on the weekends,

they are there to race and hang out.

And if they're not in the car, they can work on their

car, they can look at their data and I just hadn't been

able to do that.

And so my pace that I had in, you know, 2021, it's

really about the pace I had in 2024 and everybody

else just kept getting quicker and I was just

kind of holding on by my teeth and just wasn't

really enjoying it because I just couldn't put in

what I wanted to to be competitive.

And it's not that I was getting less competitive.

It's not that I didn't want it as much anymore.

I was just getting tired of experiencing it the

way that I had been and only putting in the

amount of time and energy as I was.

The only way was to split the two, even if that

means that I stopped doing wheel to wheel for a

period of time.

I mean, the other, it's frustrating is the wrong

word, but you're not judging yourself based on

prior Scott.

You're judging yourself based on your competitors

and your competitors are growing and your

competitors are nasty alien people in some

slash most of the cases with the water that you

swim in.

So you're even unfairly judging yourself against

this move and shifting.

You know, it's just, you know, it's not really,

it's kind of like when I was, when I went to

engineering undergrad, you start thinking

like you go in there thinking, you know,

I'm pretty smart.

Then you get there and you're like, I'm an

idiot, but it's you're just judging yourself

against a different pool.

Yeah.

That was my experience with going into grad

school.

So I'd always, I'd always considered myself a

fairly intelligent human being.

And I was the dumb kid in my grad program.

Yeah, it's, it's a, you know, the way I used

to put it, I'm not sure it's the best way

to put it, but I used to say, you know,

don't judge your inside by somebody else's

and the supplies in this instance as well.

Yeah.

Because, you know, you're, you're not going

to feel good about your driving when you're

sitting there saying, gee, you know, Tomo

is so much faster than me or Eric Ateel

was able to do this.

I can't do that.

You know, I mean, it's hard.

I think I was, I think I was fortunate

in that I learned that pretty early on.

When I, you know, GLTC's first year was

2019, which I was there for.

And then in 2020, I did much better brakes,

much wider stickier tires and a K swapped

engine in my Miata.

I was going so much faster on track and

my results were the exact same.

Right.

They were 19 because they keep moving

just because more cars came in.

They were quick and everything.

And it was at that moment I knew, well,

one, I've got a long way to go, but two,

like I've got to be in this to improve

on myself.

And so every time I went out, I would

see if I'm more aware than I was last

time is my raw pace better.

Am I better at passing?

Am I better at defending like all

these things I could measure against

myself?

I think some of the, if I can put it,

the silliest goals to go into any race

weekend is to have a finishing position

in mind.

I think that is the silliest thing

you could show up with.

No.

I mean, you're setting yourself up for

failure.

Really?

Yeah.

I mean, because you can't control

the competition, what they can do or

what they bring.

I mean, and, you know, looking back

when you did your Miata upgrade, all

that did was let you fight fair because

you were catching up to where they

already were.

Exactly.

You know, it's not like you sat there

and said, you know, I, my program is

now superior to yours.

You're just, you know, catching up

and they're still doing their stuff.

So they're, you're catching up to

where they were, not where they're

going to be.

And, you know, you can't, you

don't know where that is.

I mean, just look at F1 when you

sit there and you say, oh, I got

everything down.

And then you show up and you're

like, oh, I don't have anything

down.

Yeah.

Well, the, the beginning of those

new regulation seasons, whatever

professional business racing

series it is, is always exciting

to me because nobody has

really any idea

where any other team is.

They're just showing up with what

they think they have.

This is my, my solution, right?

Yes.

And then all of a sudden they

started looking at everyone else.

They're like, oh, they

did that.

That's interesting.

And then the crosstalk starts

and whatnot.

So.

Yeah.

I mean, Mercedes had the zero

Cypods, right?

They were great until the cars

started bouncing off the

concrete or as well.

But, you know.

The car was never great.

No.

That was a, do you ever hear

that that partly came down to

their, their wind tunnel?

The correlation to the

tunnel?

That's what.

It was the type of floor that

they were using.

It's kind of wild.

But.

Such smart people can do some,

you know, serious misses.

Yeah.

Anyway.

All right.

So, so how did it work

for you?

I mean, better

when you diversified yourself

and focused?

Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

Coaching was, again, I was

able to, to focus more,

give them more of my time

and energy didn't have to, like,

rush off anywhere in particular.

You know, unless I've got another

client I need to meet with.

And, yeah, really,

really kind of leaned into that,

enjoyed it.

And then on the weekends when

I went to the track

and to drive,

you know, my

non-driving responsibilities were

minimal and I could go out there

and just really try stuff, you know,

feel it out.

And every time I went out,

I set personal bests

or, you know,

fix something of consequence.

Excellent.

That, you know,

I'm guessing that this also helped

Becky.

Well,

her driving and or being happier

with Scotland's got got home.

Take your pick.

Well, she was always there with me.

Yeah.

Yeah, I can't say that we have

any more time

together,

but I'm always kind of at our

trailer now.

Like I'm never, like,

really gone.

Like she's the one going down to

down to hot pits to take

tire temps and right with our

drivers set up and stuff

like that.

But it's got less grumpy, right?

Not just less grumpy even, but I

just like,

I just have more energy.

You know, there's much less walking

and less like I just want to go

around the paddock, which

honestly, again, until this season,

I hadn't really been able to do that

for like two years.

And just some basic stuff like

that. So that was definitely good.

But like you suggested,

we also had the weekends

where

Becky would drive and she got

to have some good weekends.

And I was there for her.

Right.

Might have had one or two other

coaching clients or working with

a different organization or something

like that. But I was there

and helping her do

stuff and she's

you know, put a whole lot more

effort in her car and her driving.

She's doing better than she

ever has. So it's

you know, just kind of going well.

Yeah.

And I could just imagine, you know,

it I had this hit me

last year

well this year, 2025.

You know, it was like

it got to the point where I was like is

well actually it was towards the end of 24.

But is this juice worse to squeeze because

it is all consuming.

And it can be

our personalities make it

worse, right? If you if it's kind of like

when we lived in Hawaii

where it's like, oh, it's really expensive. It's like, no,

it's not really expensive because you don't have most of the bills you have. But

but there is the capability

for you to spend as much money as you have

and more. Not a problem.

It's just like racing. You can spend as much time

or money as you want

and more and still not be done because you're

never done.

And if you want to be competitive.

Yes.

It's very easy to have the ends justify the

means. Oh, for sure.

And that is not sustainable.

Well, it's really good when you're

when you're a significant other is also a racer because

it's like, do we need a turbo? Yes,

yes, we do.

Yeah, we also

have a

crate engine for a Mazda 2 sitting

in the garage right now. And that's

because you have to. I mean, you know, it's

required can save that story for another

time.

So is that going to be the

strategy for next year?

Which one?

Keep separation

in a church and state. We're going to have

instructing weekends and we're going to have

competitive weekends separate.

Yes. Yeah, that is the plan.

I

am going to continue to lean

into coaching. I'm really enjoying

it. I'm of

the age that I was never

under any illusions that I was going to

become a professional race car driver.

But

I think I could become a pretty

darn good coach.

If I kept working at it and kept at

it. And I

want to continue to grow and develop as

a coach. Reach out to

different clientele and different paddocks.

And

that is the theme of 2026

for me is getting to different

paddocks meet different people

and continue to do this

even more so than I did last

year.

And probably

it's going to be even less competition

driving for me

theoretically

about a month or so ago

I decided to

I don't have a listing for

it yet, but I am going to be

selling the Miata come spring

really.

And if it's

no

Hey, if you want to buy it, we can keep it

up.

But if

it sells for what

I would like to sell it for great

if it doesn't, I'm going to continue

to drive it and improve

on it and stuff like that because

it is a very competitive

GLTC car

or ST5 car

as well.

And so it's

I'm going to keep working at it.

Yeah, it's surprising because

you have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears

into that car.

I've gotten it to the point where it is

a pretty exceptional

car at this point.

Shocks are good, brakes are good,

engine is very good, electronics

are excellent, the ergonomics

are perfect

for me.

Arrow is good.

It's really just

continuing to work with setup and

trying out tires.

The nut behind the wheel.

It's one of those cars

that somebody were to ask me about it.

It's one of those cars where, listen,

you go compete and if you're not winning

it's not the car.

Nope.

Or not winning

like doing well.

I get it.

So that's fun.

So

next year's plans

we have

thoughts on what we're doing

and I was just wondering what you were thinking you were doing.

Yeah.

I'm going to be coaching and I want to

I want to see

if we can make some stuff happen.

I saw the

the list that you sent to me.

It's a preliminary list.

Still TBD, we haven't

have not seemingly had a moment

to talk to anybody on the team about it but that's kind of the

I think this is what we're doing.

Sure, sure.

Yeah, I was the

easier for

me to see up here.

Yeah, so the dates

that it looked like

would work for me

to do something in person.

You were looking at

NJMP early June.

Yep.

You're looking at Thompson early August.

Yep.

And summit points end of October.

And there may be another addition to the schedule

that hasn't been announced yet.

But those three for me

currently

I can make something happen for those.

Well, let's talk about the fun part.

You mentioned

dipping your

toe into endurance racing and we love

nothing more

than doing that.

So is that seemingly

potential for you and or Becky?

I mean it's

you don't have to twist my arm very hard to get into

any car and drive

it around a racetrack so that'd be

pretty easy to do.

But you'd have to drive for like several hours that weekend

Scott. I mean I don't want to inconvenience you

or it's terrible.

So bad.

I'm actually

here's my justification

is I'm getting a new

race suit this winter.

Nice.

Because the one that I have is the one I bought

back in 2017.

Oh no.

And it has seen a lot of life

and it was never

a great suit to begin with

but it was the one that I could afford

and it's just kept working

and it's

really to the point where the zipper works most

of the time.

And it's heavy

and it's hot and you know it's like

I can do a new suit

now so that's going to be

my thing this winter but if

what's the point of having a suit if I'm not going to drive.

That's kind of it you know

and some of the suits when you first get in

when you do the suit upgrade

you realize that the suit that I was wearing

in the middle of 90 degrees

and the humidity on a good day

in a race car is like wearing a quilt.

Exactly.

I do put my

current race suit on

when I'm cold.

So that is like

my snow suit

of sorts. Well I mean you can keep it

for the winter races. Good.

I definitely will.

There's no reason I couldn't write a bit.

So now that you've

decided that you're shifting

overall

what was the highlight of your year

so far?

I'll kind of

separate it out.

I

get a lot of pleasure from

not only my own performances

but also in

helping

others get

to do better

themselves.

And so when some of my drivers

perform very well

or have a result that they didn't

think that they would be able to get

and things like that it's

that is very

affirming and very

fun for me to watch.

So in terms of my own performance

this year certainly it was

the one lap of America.

Yeah. Specifically the

first session

day two which was

our first time on a road course

and

it was my

qualifying position

was something

well beyond

what I expected to

be able to achieve

and

I think what I'm most proud of

is not only the results that

we were able to get

but is my ability to

not let the pressure

really get to me

when I would get in a car and get

lined up because I was in

for the one lap they have like

different run groups

never in my life did I think

that I was going to be in the first or second

run group. You might actually get

sleep at a one lap if you're up there

what fun is that? Well we still

did the team thing so it was a

you know all three

of us together heller high water

sort of thing. Right.

But now they

they competed very well

too and

yeah to have that first one result was

kind of shocking and

bewildering to be honest

but then when I lined up

for the afternoon earlier than I ever

had didn't really

bother me I was able to lock in

and get focused and

do what I wanted to do and move on

from there so I'm

quite proud of how I

performed there and

that was great

in terms of

watching other people

and helping them

Becky's driving continues

to improve

and she's

trying things that you know

I'd never seen her have the

confidence to try before

that's awesome

and you know she's really

putting a lot of effort into her

um

wanting to kind of take the whole thing

a little bit more seriously not in

terms of not having fun but like she

wants to

perform better she wants to go faster

and

she got to the point where I think she

realized that in order to do that it

takes more time and more

effort and she's

putting that time and effort in

that's been good

other than that

I'm trying to remember if

it was

Chincherman

from Midwest Festival

or maybe mid Ohio

but we had one

event

where everyone was going faster

than they ever had everybody

was setting personal best

right um or performing

well or something and it was just

you know not

necessarily session after session but

like

man you know they had some great performances

and it's very rare when

you know all of my drivers

on the same weekends

have good weekends or

everyone's happy with

how they do and progress

and what they're learning and

you know that it's all

roses sort of thing but that

weekend you know certainly had

some bumps but man by and

large

pretty exceptional and that's

that's fun and

you know I don't

necessarily need thanks or like

shout outs from the podium

or anything like that but

you know at the end of a weekend that

you know that little like thanks again

for everything you did it's you know

I had a lot of fun and it's like

hell yeah I'm going to write that

down somewhere you know

help keep me going

sounds like you're still a teacher

at heart Scott.

Yeah I you know

Seth and I on our podcast

we kind of

talked about that and

as I look back

kind of on my life and what I've

done and what I tend to

lean towards anyway

is you know

helping

people do

things that they've

not done before

will refine what they're doing

or you know

relating with people

and I enjoy it

so I'm going to keep trying to do it.

Well

speaking of trying to do it

2025 fell apart for the

Fisher crowd.

We had talked about me doing some coaching

for you guys and I

you coached every race that

I was at Scott every single race

that I was at.

When I reached out a couple

times I didn't hear something back I'm like

they've got to be having

something going on so I just kind of

backed off. We did. Let you guys do

your thing. Yeah

2025 was

a hard year for us.

That's what I've gathered.

We're going with writing it off. Let's do

2025 part two. Let's just

do it again a little better.

We

actually didn't open our

garage until

to repair the car

until August.

That was a little before August

the race was in August but yeah. Yeah we

borrowed a car.

We borrowed a truck

because

Bill had lost his mom

around Christmas last year

and I think that

we just didn't have the capacity

for repairing the car

because his mom was

sick

kind of leading up to that.

You kind of deal with the holidays and then

right after the first of the year is when things

goes. The car

was in the shop

getting straightened

which came back fine but

I don't think we had the capacity

to do anything with it.

We ended up getting a race

truck. The race truck came back

a friend of ours that purchased it said

just don't even open it.

Don't open the garage. The truck is ready.

Just go take the truck.

And even then it just didn't feel real.

So it wasn't until

like August to where we

put the car back. We opened up the garage

and I started getting the car ready

and we had it ready for the October

race. Put back together

and then of course

test runs. Had to

figure out whatever they got.

So going into 26

that was only the race that we did

with the Honda.

So going into

26

is going to be

we're going to have a better year lined up

and even

when we did that one race

our team wasn't put together well.

It was just a hard year.

So we're going to move it over

to 26.

We're going to be hanging out

with that.

The team dynamics I mean

it's one thing when

you as individuals haven't done something

in a while

and so like your level of focus

and energy and

polish of skills

at that point just isn't there let alone

the interaction

and teamwork with other people

like I

I don't

doubt that that was

well and

even with that first

race

with

the car

I mean it wasn't so bad

when you know you have somebody

who's given you a car and you're just bringing

your junk right

and you're setting up and then you're doing the race

and that's kind of different but

with all the prep

and then the packing and

when we were talking

about how you were

you know with juggling

the balls and running on adrenaline

that's you know that's

when I could say like

it just felt like everything deflated

this year

and I don't know if that's still part

of grief or

if that was part of

just a shift when we

weren't as active because

we were kind of dealing with this

but trying to get that momentum back

that's what I was saying to

I was asking those same questions because

it was relatable

in a sense like

get the mojo back

yeah

everybody back in their roles

I mean we could do a

podcast series on grief

that's a

that's a wild topic in and of

itself

it takes the wind out of the sales

it's

it forces you

to look at yourself

well no

no it does not force you

I'm going to take that back it gives you the opportunity

to look at yourself in the world

in a very different lens

and that is traumatic

on a personal level

and so that's

where from the outside grief can be a very selfish thing

because it's this

it's this person

that you loved and that you've

spent time with

who's died like it should be about them

but like it's kind of about you

because

it's your experience of that person

that they are the ones

who aren't going to be there

but you're the ones who's going to experience

that absence

which is what a ghost in

classic literature is a ghost isn't

a thing a ghost is

an absence

and so the haunting after

I'm getting kind of deep into it already

but like it's the haunting

after

that's the

part of the grief process that's

kind of wild and so

like you said with the

you know comparing

your experience with mine

going racing and like being excited

about it can't be a left over

activity

like it can't be

going to the racetrack

with whatever left over energy

that you have

is not going to be enjoyable

and it could be dangerous

100%

I think this year it just felt like

going through the motions

I mean we were enjoying ourselves

but it

it was different

everything just shifted

and for a time

that going through the motions

can be

what it needs to be

just kind of

doing the batting practice

and not really feeling that sort of thing

just continuing to do it

may have been the thing that

will help get you into next

season a little bit easier

we'll get there you know why we're going to get there

Scott because we're going to work with you

we're going to drag you in

kicking and screaming because

you know threaten you with a good time

I know it's fine we're going to drag you into

endurance racing

but you're going to help us

I don't know if you got a chance to listen to the podcast

where we talked about the Ross Bentley

event that Vicki went to

Vicki's actually looking

forward to

looking at data with somebody besides me

yeah I've had discussions with

Vicki about

you know your

significant other

and coaching and things like that so

yeah having a different

perspective is

usually not a bad thing

it definitely helps because there's only

so many things she wants to learn from me

it's like

I tended to be more sporty

she tended to be more artsy and she's come over to the

sporty side and she's like

tired of listening to me saying this is what you need to do

well I came over to the sporty side

not being competitive

and then going into being competitive so

it's

you know it's not like I was brought up

to say you know

what competitive is

I was the artsy girl

you know so

I think being competitive

you work up to

having some skin

layers built up

for being that you know

and losses sometimes feel

hard and sometimes

criticism feels a little hard

or it's not even delivered as

criticism it's just taken as criticism

you know

because and it's not

it's not my significant

other's fault

it's just

can you say that again I got to

I didn't grow up being a sport girl

so

being hit with the losses

or

toughening up

you know

things feel

more personal

I think you and I could have

some good conversations

because I was actually the artsy one

growing up as well

I

like talking

with the right crowd I like talking about

driving and racing as a

creative endeavor

yes

and that's

you know a good number of drivers

are competitive people by nature

I am

as well

but there is an inherent

creativity

in flow

and in skill building

just because you're creative

doesn't mean you're going to be a good painter

or a good musician

you have to practice

you have to build the skills

you have to build the mental fortitude

to go into a music competition

to be able to perform

when you need to

when your being isn't perfect

and things like this

and I'm speaking personal experience

and so a lot of that

is applicable

to racing

as long as you

as long as you can kind of tap into that

and I think that competitive

for me

is a fun thing

it's not a

you know every time I think

about competition I keep thinking about

baseballs against teams

and you know there's this

you know this back and forth

of you know

it can get a little aggro

that's not

how I view competition

for me competition is just like

what happened a good time

I don't get angry

about things

when I start going into competitive mode

and I don't know

if that is what a creative

aspect is of it

I look at

I view it

as

what is it

car craft

I just view it all as car craft

and race craft

and then honing it more than I do

the competition of it

100%

see I think

we're going to get along really well

it'll be good

yeah

the notion that

the competition mindset

has to be one particular thing

I think is

long been a myth

the idea that

when you're at the front you have to be aggressive

and you have to

dive bomb and you have to force the issue

and bumping and all this sort of stuff

and

again if you don't watch F1

that's totally fine

but I think what happened in F1

this year was an interesting one

and that the

driver who won the

driver's championship

Landon Norris

does not drive

like four time

world championship

winner first happened

does not drive like Hamilton does

he drives like he does

and he's not terribly aggressive

he was the most consistent

this year

and so

the idea that you have to be one

way in order to

improve or to do

better

is

far from the truth

and so whenever people

try to explain what I do in terms of

like I just tell a driver

what to do better

couldn't be farther from the truth

what a good coach I believe

does

is help to draw out of a driver

the thought processes

skills that are currently there

and part of my skill

and background is

knowing what the next step

is to helping

a particular driver achieve

the goals that they think that they want

to get to

and so there's a whole lot of

interpretation there's a whole

lot of back and forth

and I

from my previous profession

certainly into this one

questions are my

trade

far more than

you know really

here you're doing this and it's not as good

now we can go into

some of that when we're short on time and stuff

but more it's why

are you doing what you're doing

and if you can explain that

to me I'm going to ask

well what if you did this

to prioritize that

and then we have that discussion

that's to me is what coaching is

well I had

just attended

the last thing I did was

Ross Bentley's

race academy

which kind of brought out

some questions

and of course

that had some

availability to like

I now have the capacity to accept

data

in the learning process

but you know I think that

and I've mentioned this before

it's just like when you're

when you're learning racing and you're doing racing

everything is like a fire hose

and then all of a sudden

somebody's like okay now data

well yeah I don't have the capacity for data

right now I'm still trying to deal with the fire hose

so

but now I have capacity for data

but

there was a couple questions

they did a why are you doing that

this is why I'm doing that

because this is how I learned it and the reason

why I learned is because this happened

and then somebody told me this

and this is why I do it

so

and every and a lot of things

I try to give

a lot of instructors a lot of grace

because I

was one and I continue to develop

myself

as well as hopefully all of them

and for

a time

well let me back up

I think part of what makes a good

instructor

is lying to you

is

telling me the story you need at that point

yes it's like

I have

I know point A to point B

and the

intermediate steps along the way

you only need to know

the first one or two

there's no point

in me talking about steering the car with the brake

when we are talking about

what the flags mean

those are two things that do not need to be

discussed in the same meaning

and so I'm going to lie to you

I'm going to say here's what

you need to know right now

and they're very simple

they're very important

very simple, very easy

let's get them done

and it'll let you know here's the next step

here's what we're going to be working on

then we're going to do that

and it's going to complicate that first thing

just a little bit

so what I said was very simple, very easy

all of a sudden

but in these circumstances

you can do this but you've got that skill

to be able to complicate it now

but guess what

there's something else we're going to add on to that next

but you didn't know that back then

because I'm going to lie to you

I'm going to say this is very simple

this is very easy and straightforward

and I've learned this

from some extraordinarily good

professors and teachers along the way

who have demonstrated

that the track of knowledge from here

to better

or from here to professional

or whatever a particular

driver is trying to go for

that there is a

step

from here to the next thing

and it's not nearly as ambiguous

as a lot of drivers

want to think that it is

that there's a lot of like

magic and things that

you just go out there and you either have it

or you don't

but there's some very fundamental basic skills

that everybody can work on

and it's just

a matter of figuring out

how you think about it

so what we need to do next

and so when I listen

to your podcast

and we'll see if I can recall here

is one of your things

is that you were waiting until the car was settled

you

that's one of them

that's one of them, yeah

and I remember listening to that podcast

and hearing like your excitement

around that right

and for a time

that was a good thing to do

it's to wait till the car was settled

because maybe you didn't have the skills

or awareness to be able to catch something

if the car did

but now that you're there

it's become a hindrance

and so we're going to complicate it

make the car settle

and that is what I'm having

a hard time understanding

but now see

but then this comes into

carcraft

this is understanding how to

physically

make your car

and understand

the car now

when before

I was still in that learning process

now I'm still in a learning process

but now it's like let's force it

now we're going to

we're forever in the learning process

but now we're going to go to the next level of

now I need to figure out how to force my car

to do what I want it to do

and be proactive in it instead of

reactive

so that is

the language that we're

going to be working on

well that's something that

I've

I remember this past year with a couple

of my long time drivers

that's something we're really starting to focus on

because they are very

very good very quick drivers

they hold records at some places

and we are working on

you know

right from here to here

you waited for the car to do this

knowing that it's going to do that

you waited until it did it

before you did the next thing

you know it's going to do that here

don't wait for it

because by the time you wait

you're behind

and that's hard

but when it happens

it's a clincher

but when it happens

you've got to log it

in your brain you've got to replay it back

remember this one time

this and why

at particular corner

maybe I can apply that

here in a slightly different way

mm-hmm

yeah

sounds like we're going to have quite the year

we are going to have quite the year

it was exciting to hear

because I know

I know after

listening to your podcast for a while

that you were having a bit of a plateau

that

you didn't know how to break through it

mm-hmm

you just always kept banging up against

I don't like

when this happens

I'm much more comfortable in these kinds of cars

it's a lot of ceiling

being put on

where you could go

mm-hmm

and it seems like that event

which huge fan of

mm-hmm

I could write a

on the things I think they did

incredibly well there

um

helped you break through that

and I think that's a testament to the

style of

um

coaching

that event highlighted

and that I'm a big fan of

yeah

there was a lot in that event

that

that's a good way of putting it

that's what I'm fascinated with

mm-hmm

and it also helped that

the track was smaller

and tighter

so the repetitions

were faster

and more consistent

and just more

and that's something

when we look at sim racing

with several of my drivers

when we're looking at tracks to

work on skills

for certain skills

because you're sitting in your living room

and it doesn't really

like the travel times the same

so you know

you can go to some of these big big tracks

but like it's a two minute 30 lap

and like

let's go to the one minute 20 lap

you could almost double the reps

and we can still work on this

one thing

so sim racing does

um

almost to do more

because then we can put you

in a type of car that's gonna maybe

make it a little bit harder

to do this thing but it's gonna exacerbate

the skill

that we're trying to develop and we can

put you on the tracks that are gonna

give you a lot of practice

and probably be frustrating

at times

but then we can jump in other cars at that same track

to like work on your processing speed

and stuff like that so just

accelerates and allows

a lot more

room for growth and development

in a short time

yeah that's gonna be our winter project

is getting the sim racer set up

one of them

and then

getting the Honda

because you know after

after you get it back from the shop

and try to put everything back together

you're still kind of working out some kinks in it

that was a kink race

that we did

think we need to name it a slight

yeah but that's what it was

we had to get the gremlins out

we don't shame around here though

no shame

think there's another reference

that's fascinating that you were an artsy person

what did you do

what did you do Scott

what did you do

I was a music player mostly

I always enjoyed drawing

and art and that sort of thing

also with lesbian for much of my

kind of

into college

but yeah I was music

heavily as well into college

bassoon in particular

and really enjoyed it

so you're just by nature

a creative I call them creatives

you're kind of good at a

just that's your avenue

yeah I

and I had to

re

the word right now

I had to kind of take back a hold of that

for myself a few years back

is

that often times it's very easy for me

to just like head down

do what I need to do

you know at work

take care of the family

blah blah blah all this stuff

but to see something

as a creative act and to

do something that I see as

creative

is incredibly important

in life giving to me

and so if I look at my car

as an art project of sorts

like to be creative with it

like that is fun

which is why like

doing maintenance is the

dullest thing I feel like I can do

because I don't see this

creative it's just like

fixing what was already there

mm-hmm

but you know it's working

it keeps breaking

it's an inevitability

yeah

it has one job

you're a fuel pump

pump the fuel that's all I'm asking

anyway

yeah I did the same thing

sometimes I feel like

I need to take a

step back

because it's almost like if you don't do something

like that you're losing a sense of

self

wait because it is a value

it is to your bar

right

and to just completely step away

from it you're just like I don't feel like myself

anymore

I gotta go back and do something

I think it goes back to the

sustainability conversation that we had

is for a time you can do everything

mm-hmm

for a time often we have to

because that's the only way that we can do the thing

but like my

good friend who I raced with for several years

he

hated prepping his car

like could not stand

to stand top of the maintenance and work

it was just draining

the enjoyment

out of the whole

racing experience

and so he just started

giving it to different shops

to take care of and

it was a lot more money than he

sometimes wanted to spend

but he was able to enjoy

the hobby for what it was

mm-hmm

and like

myself

tearing open transmissions

and differentials

ain't me

I draw the line at

trying to figure out lash

and all that stuff

I just

don't have time or really the desire

to want to learn to do it well

to do it well

and wiring

early on in my case swap

I knew

that I didn't have the time

to be able to dive into that deep deep world

and to do it as well

as I would want to have it done

and so I gave it to somebody who

I knew was good at wiring

and it was

expensive

and worth it

because I've not had to touch the wiring

once it just

I feel bad because

what he did to my car was amazing

and I just don't have to think about it

those are my favorite parts

on a car are things that are done

beautifully

with skill

and just work

race after race

it's great

you need some part of the car

you don't have to worry about

and again

here I'm able to get

more and more of the car

reliable

and

more serviceable

that's the other part

it's very easy to build a car

but to make it serviceable

in a quick and efficient manner

takes a level of thought

that if you're just like trying to

slave away and you're just trying to get stuff done

you don't have time to do

and so like on the Miata

putting a dry brake

on the clutch

between the clutch master and the slave cylinder

saves me

45

half an hour

probably half an hour realistically

of time in

dropping the trans and putting it back in

just don't have to do it

easily right

yep

yeah

the half to do's

versus the should do's

it's that quadrant of

urgent versus important

that it's the non-urgent

important things that often go

overlooked but those are the

things that are

make sustainability

a possibility

you know what that means we need to do

Scott

we need

to make

including the data and the video in the car

the higher quadrant

activity as opposed to

we didn't get there

that is why

I think so many

different data systems

are out there

because there are

there are so many very

good data

acquisition systems

but

many of them

make

accessing the data or video

a nightmare

or at least like put one or two steps

in between you and it

at least and on

a busy weekend

or even a weekend that

doesn't go maybe

a little according to plan is that

extra step and if it keeps you

from doing it

do something else

and sometimes that's something else

is much more money

it can be

but it's better than

a little money getting zero use

yes

I think the multiple with the zero

gets weird but I'm pretty sure I can do the math

yeah

that's a whole like

do it right the first time but

you don't know what you don't know

early

unfortunately most of us don't

listen to the advice of people who have done it

for longer so

I think that's where the buy once cry once thing

came from

I could talk about

shocks for a minute too but

I bought some shocks from my Miata

that were well regarded

in the public and

because I didn't think that more expensive

shocks were necessarily worth it

or it's just a lot of money

how much better could it be right

it turns out a lot better

a lot better

but again you don't know what you don't know

measurably better

I believe is the word

anyway

so Scott

do we want to get into goals now

or do we want to do that later

well I guess my question would be

how much have you both

thought about goals

that's all I think about

that's literally all I think about

Vicki on the other hand

she's smarter than me she has better things to think about

everything Vicki have you actually put some thought into it

my goal this year is trying

to figure out

how to

number one truly manage the BMW

and two

forcing the car to do what I wanted to do

to be a proactive driver

I think

I am definitely

getting better at the

end of the straight away

which was always a challenge

for me is to

not

so much coast in there

but try to time it better

and I think that is an area

also that still needs

work because I think

part of the problem

is the language

of what people are telling me

that I need to do

because it's conflicting

some people say just slam on

the brakes at the very end

so you don't

you know so you can make the turn

you go in there full speed

and turn and some people say no no no

you really do got to kind of let off a little bit before you go

so I think part of it is going to be

language

and understanding

okay this is exactly what you need to do

when you're at the end of the straight away

this is when you need to let up

this is when you need to actually

go in going in there

properly because

part of it that I'm experiencing

now is understanding

what I have learned

what I have been told

and how that actually plays out

because I think I'm playing it out differently

so

I think that's some of that is part of

my hang up before

at the end of straight away was a self preservation

but now I'm much more comfortable

going into the end of the straight away

so now I want to make

sure that I'm going into the end of the straight away

properly

before I make my turns

that's always been an issue for me

I don't have

a ton of fear

on the track when I'm racing

so at least this point now

it's going to be based on car craft

and actually trying to do the right thing

until I do

get that uncomfortable feeling again

so

and then of course being proactive

breaking old habits

so there's

there's a lot in there

a big one I heard was

being proactive

the first one

I would

probably have some questions with

you said that you want to

do something with the BMW

could you rephrase that for me

yeah so the

BMW

is a bit more

powerful of a car than

I am a customer driving because I have a Miata

I have a Honda and I had the race truck

the BMW

is going to be a lot more powerful a lot quicker

and

it's going to be a different beast to

manage so

I think that is also going to be

one of the vehicles I'd like to be driving this year

beyond just the Miata

because I'll probably be doing both

but I think most likely

I will be

I have to decide if I'm going to be

focusing

all the training and learning

and how I'm going to be doing that

in what vehicle

I have to figure that out

because I

you think that would be best done in one vehicle

I don't

I think that

I think I can be

I think I can do more than one vehicle

here's my thought

and

even with your

your goal of being proactive

I think what

what we can do is

want to attach some very specific

measurable things to that

is

what's it look like

like at the end of a weekend

what can we point to in saying that

this was Vicky being more proactive

and what can we say about that

going into the weekend and then after the weekend

so like being proactive

could that mean

using the throttle

to settle the car? Yes

could that mean

using your brake application

or release

to help not only turn the car but plant the car

yes

could it mean

using your steering timing

and speed and transitions

to get the car

turn and settled

in quick complexes

so there are things

I think that we could like

concretely put

and again that there would be a hierarchy

of this for sure

depending on the track in the car

and things like that

things that we can specifically work on

towards that goal

but that would be a lot more measurable

because the whole notion

of being more proactive

that could be very

vibe space

yeah I felt like I was more proactive

but if we don't put

something a little bit

sharper on it

something that you can check a box on

that then

then we can really

know

even if it's data or video whatever it is

or like see the pants but it's like

something that you can point to

and say this is better

and this is how I did it

yes

it's the how that then we can start

taking from weekend to weekend

and it goes back to

breaking down that one decision I had

on turn 5

that we had discussed

at New Jersey which was

waiting

for the car to settle

and when somebody

just said why are you waiting

and when they said that

I'm like because that's what you do

that was an excellent question

right

very good question

and here's

my thought

what car should I focus on

and I think

in doing

hopefully getting some more sim racing

work done I think

what you can start to find

is that the car

is the paint brush

okay

it's

some are going to come more

naturally to you

but they're all going

to be doing the same

thing differently

and so part of the thing that's

good to build into you

into drivers whoever

is not only like what you're trying

to do but to do

that immediate feedback

when I do this

this happens

now do I want that to

happen or do I need something

else to happen

immediately

it should trigger almost like

these kind of like little tiny

flow chart

that okay I went into this corner

I released the brake

and then I had

to wait to get on

throttle out of the corner

and I just had a bunch of steering

left

that suggests to me

that you came off of the brake too soon

car didn't get rotated

enough and that you just had

to wait and wait and wait

and straight away good

so immediately it's a

I need to get the car to rotate

GHiT 0744: Scott Robertson - Year in Review and Our Coach for 2026

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