Garage Heroes In Training Mar 18, 2026

GHiT 0752: The Costs of Racing with the Ironbird Racing Team

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Concept

lemons

Lemons is a fun car race where people race cheap, older cars. It's more about having a good time and meeting people than winning.

Concept

motocross

Motocross is a type of motorcycle race where riders race on dirt tracks with lots of bumps and jumps.

Car

sprint cars

Sprint cars are special race cars that go really fast on small dirt or paved tracks, often with big wings on top to help them stick to the ground.

Term

tech

Tech is a check that race cars have to pass to make sure they're safe and follow the rules before they can race.

Term

broomstick test

The broomstick test is when they use a stick to check if there's enough space inside the race car for the driver and safety gear.

Concept

roll cage

A roll cage is a strong metal frame inside a race car that keeps the driver safe if the car flips or crashes. It helps protect the driver by making the car's inside stronger.

Term

sliders

Sliders are special bars put on the sides of a car to stop it from getting scratched or damaged if it slides or bumps into things.

Concept

fire suppression system

A fire suppression system is like a fire extinguisher built into the car that can put out fires fast to keep the driver safe.

Concept

endurance racing

Endurance racing means racing for a long time, sometimes several hours. Instead of just going fast, drivers need to keep their car running and avoid mistakes to finish the race.

Term

pit stop

A pit stop is when a race car stops briefly during a race to get fuel, new tires, or let another driver take over.

Term

tire pressure

Tire pressure means how much air is inside the tires. Having the right amount helps the car drive better and safer.

Term

black flags

A black flag in racing means the driver has to stop racing and go to the pit area because they did something wrong or their car has a problem. This can make them lose time in the race.

Term

caution flag

A caution flag tells drivers to slow down because something dangerous happened on the track. It helps keep everyone safe until the problem is fixed.

Concept

short stints

A stint is how long a driver stays in the car before switching with someone else or taking a break. Short stints mean driving for shorter times to stay fresh or learn more.

Term

VTEC

VTEC is a technology in some Honda engines that helps the car go faster when you push the gas but still saves fuel when you don't.

Term

brakes

Brakes help a car slow down or stop. In racing, brakes have to work really well because the cars go fast and need to stop quickly.

Term

transmission

The transmission is like the car's gearbox that helps it go faster or slower. If it breaks, the car can't move properly.

Concept

CMP

CMP is a race track in South Carolina where people go to race cars. It's a popular place for car races.

Concept

hoopties

Hoopties are old or cheap cars that people race for fun. They might not look nice or be very fast, but they are great for learning and enjoying racing without spending a lot.

Term

wrap

A wrap is like a big sticker that covers a car to change how it looks. People use it to make their car look cool or different without painting it.

Term

driver stints

In long races, different drivers take turns driving the car. Each turn is called a driver stint.

Term

tires

Tires are the rubber parts that touch the road. In racing, you need to change them often because they wear out fast, and some tires help you go faster but don't last as long.

Term

tire wear

Tire wear means the tire slowly gets thinner and less grippy because it rubs against the road a lot.

Term

RE71 RS

RE71 RS tires help race cars go really fast and stick to the track well, but they cost more and might wear out faster.

Concept

pit bike

A pit bike is a little motorcycle that people use at race tracks to get around faster instead of walking.

Concept

pit race

A pit race is a car race where there is a special area called the pit where cars can stop for quick repairs or refueling during the race.

Concept

Summit Point

Summit Point is a race track where people drive cars fast for fun or competition.

Concept

Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park

Thompson Speedway is a place where people race cars on different types of tracks.

Term

electric scooter

An electric scooter is a small motorized bike that helps you get around faster without using much energy.

LIVE

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 Fisher.

And their soon to be wonder woman, Vicky Fisher.

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.

I'm going to be your host for the episode, my name is Bill.

And I haven't done this a long time and I ran out of breath.

Anyway, who else is hosting?

Vicky.

We're back.

We are.

That's right.

We left.

We came back.

It's been a while, but it's okay.

So, how did this episode come about?

Well, one of our listeners said, hey, we have questions.

You should ask these things.

And I said, that's a great idea.

When are you coming on?

And they said, what?

So, fooled another one, boomerang, from the Iron Bird racing team driving the number 103

Mr. 2 who had their first ever race, I believe at some point, we were, I believe we were

across the street.

I don't know if the street is street and quote in a paddock, but whatever.

We have Robin and Greg, the team captain.

Greg, you got team captain responsibilities.

You utter fool.

Yeah, I got anointed team captain in Robin's email to you where he created that title.

That's fine.

Team captain is usually delegated by who wants to be team captain and the other three people

take a step backwards.

And you're like, oh, okay.

I guess it's me.

So, let's start with team captain Designee.

Greg, what got you into racing?

Man, we've been sort of a want to be race family for a very long time.

My eldest son is a mechanic.

We've, you know, raised everything from go carts to Baja cars to each other.

Maybe not so legally.

I mean, these things happen in Mexico is trying to be who's the fastest in the family.

So we've got a new caveat to that.

Maybe we could talk about later about who's the fastest in the family without breaking the car.

See, that's key.

Yeah.

Well, the fastest in the family usually ends up with the biggest bill.

So that's, that's just how it works.

Robin, how about you?

How'd you get into this craziness that we call lemons?

The seas were planted early.

My dad raised motorcycles for a long time and I grew up racing motorcycles.

I learned to ride a motorcycle when I was nine and I was racing motocross by the time I was 11 or 12.

And my dad, when he broke too many things on motorcycles, he moved on to sprint cars.

So, and he raised sprint cars for years and years and years and years.

To the point where like, you know, he was known as the one of the grand old fellows of Iowa sprint car racing.

And he was on his way to a race back in 2018 when he passed away.

Like that's, you know, he kind of raced from 19 to the entirety of his life.

Wow.

Yeah.

And after doing motorcycles for a while, I kind of got out of it for a bit.

I ran into Greg because his old or one of his kids and my oldest kid were in school together and we happened to be talking about, you know, something at some sporting event.

And I think he was talking about racing and Baja or something like that.

It's like, all right, this is kind of cool.

So, yeah, we kind of fell in together and things actually happened that we raced last year for the first time in London.

It was great.

Was it everything you hoped for?

It was, it was, it was more than I hoped for as far as like the community has been so awesome.

My family is really, really tired of me talking about how cool lemons is and, you know, the rest of my friends are really tired of me talking about.

But yeah, it's just a wonderfully accepting community.

You know, you get to hang out with people that you wouldn't necessarily hang out with.

And, you know, you have all this, you know, kind of common bond where everybody's willing to help everybody out.

Everybody's, you know, rooting for everybody else.

It's great.

Yeah.

That is, it's, I attribute it to, and I say this quite a bit, I, lemons racing is like playing football on Sunday.

You're all out there.

Nothing is overly serious, but there is still some competition in there.

And it's all about having a great time and nobody wants to see you not playing.

So they're going to help you get back on the track.

If your car literally breaks, you'll probably have people stopping by and trying to help you get your car back on the road.

Yeah, absolutely.

And unfortunately, that's usually necessary, but that's a different part of the story.

Yeah, it's true.

So do you guys, you know, did you guys have any goals with your going out there?

Our number one goal was to pass tech.

Once we passed tech, everything else was gravy.

We were so stressed about the, what is it, the broom, broom handle test.

Oh yeah, the broomstick test.

So we have one of our teammates is how tall is Nick?

Six, five?

I'm like that.

We're racing an 89 MR2.

So we just obsessed.

We beat out the floor of the, you know, remove the seat, beat out the floor completely, removed it and,

and, you know, we were up till what midnight at 1am trying to fix it and make sure it was right.

Finally, seating it, getting new welds in, added to the roll cage, modified it, made sure it was safe, passing tech.

And then we get there and the, maybe I shouldn't say this because I don't want to alert any of the judges and make it more difficult.

But like anybody lessons.

But our neighbors, they had a, what were they racing Robin and Audi?

And they were taller than Nick, you know, six, five, big, big guys.

We're like, how do you guys pass tech?

Well, we just send one of our short drivers.

Oh geez.

I know nothing.

La, la, la, la, la, la, la.

Oh geez.

So Bill, why don't you explain what the broomstick test is?

Go ahead.

So broomstick test is that the, the top of your helmet seated in the seat, the top of your helmet has to be below the, the roll cage.

So they slide a broomstick across allegedly underneath the, the roll cage.

And if your, your helmet slides with some space you've passed.

Yep.

So.

And if you don't, it's a long weekend.

It's a long weekend watching other people drive the car.

No, we'll fix it.

Don't worry.

You'd be amazed how many cages have been torn apart and put back together.

So with an MR2, it is harder though.

Speaking as a person who had a 91 MR2, I, I know that's not so big.

I thought you guys were same gen.

Are you first gen?

We're first gen.

Yeah, there's.

Oh, I'm second gen.

Okay.

I thought, I thought it was to change in 89 must have been later.

It's okay.

That's, that's even worse though.

I mean, space wise.

Yeah, it's tight.

Like, okay.

So the, the, the height range was I think six, five to gosh, Colton is five, nine, five,

eight and a half.

That's a lot.

Yeah.

Okay.

So five, seven to six, five.

Please take, please say you had sliders on there.

Oh, we definitely had sliders.

Okay.

We had booster booster seat.

Okay.

Foam seat underneath.

So yeah.

Yeah.

All the toys.

Yeah.

All the toys made it work.

Yeah.

So having had one of these cars, well, a relative of one, you know, next next generation, you

know, the son or daughter, whatever, I have a question for you.

Why?

Why, how did you come across choosing your car?

I'm not how I'm why I'm like, what were you thinking?

What I was thinking was that somebody else had raced this car and then it was a, it came

with a set.

So there's, you know, the, my background that you're seeing right now is the blue, the blue

car, which is generously named because as you see from the picture that your listeners

can't, it's black and blue and yellow and various parts and missing a front fender, etc.

So not a lot of blue there, sir.

I'm bad with color.

But yeah, it came as a set, had the roll cages in it, allegedly had the fire suppression,

which I think 36 hours prior to the race we found out wasn't going to pass.

And then figured out how easy it was to install.

But yeah, since it came as a set had been racing and lemons out in Arizona for a while,

I thought, oh, that's a, that's a, and not knowing about the broomstick test because

we're just super, super naive about it.

Less so now with one race under rebel veterans, you know, and, and bumper to bumper, squeeze

tight.

They fit in our 28 foot trailer with I think probably seven or eight millimeters to spare.

There's not much more room.

Wait, it's not a problem.

Room is the problem.

Space is the problem.

Yeah.

One of our, our sister teams races many.

So we, we understand it's mine.

Actually, the way the mini is going on this trip, my dear, we might be racing a mini soon.

Anyway, that's, that's a different story.

I'll be home someday.

It'll be fine.

All right.

So Greg and Robin, when we call them to the race, we have certain set of skills.

Some of them are helpful.

Actually, most of them aren't.

So if you guys look at yourselves as racers, what, what kind of skills did you bring to

this endeavor and, and where's the gaps on this team?

Oh, somebody's laughing already.

I mean, he, he raced motorcycles since he was seven and still walking.

So he's got to do something.

Robin has a longer list of skills than I do much longer.

So I'll let him go first.

Yeah.

So there is one skilled mechanic on the team and it's neither Greg nor I.

That's, that's Greg's son, Colton.

I know, I know that wrenches exist and I can do a little bit with them.

I can follow the directions that Colton gives me with some small degree of accuracy.

I think my, one of my roles was to look at the rules real hard and to make sure that we were in compliance with them.

I happen to be a member of the legal profession.

So that was kind of like it's in with, with what I do.

You know, I, I think that's kind of it.

The, you know, besides Greg, the other two members of our team are younger than us by scores of decades or something like that.

So there's a little bit of management of them and making sure that they stay on task.

I don't know that I'm great at that, but I can recognize when it's going awry and try to nudge them.

Yeah.

Our first race was Vicki and I are that then at then 17 year old son who had just started driving and his friend who both of them are going to set new records at the track before they even got there.

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

We understand.

It's part of the fun.

Well, Greg, um, I'm kind of scared to ask you the same question since you prefaced it with Robin has all these skills and Robin's like, dude, I don't know nothing.

So, so what anchor, I mean, what helped you to this team?

Yeah, I definitely drag us down for sure.

I probably the heaviest teammate.

That's for sure.

I mean, Colton is his way for thin and Nick is six, five and as then weighs as much.

So, um, yeah, the skills I bring are more logistical.

So by, you know, by training, you know, business process, reengineering, continuous improvement, all of that stuff as federal management consulting.

So bring that to the track and organize and Robin can tell you that I was probably a little bit obsessed about things that we've never, ever used in terms of pits and everything else.

And then we just decided to come back to the paddock almost every single time.

We never once, I think one time we, we fueled it, uh, you know, out on the track, but it was just easier and we weren't worried about our time.

I think at one point we were battling, battling hard for a hundred and forty nine.

I mean, somebody's got to.

So Robin, do we, do we translate all that Greg said that he pointed at the race a lot?

Yeah.

Okay.

I was just making sure I wanted to make sure our listeners saw through that little, uh, advertising slogan.

He's like, well, you know, I got this.

Japs of project management knowledge, which means I stand in point.

Pretty much.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

No, don't don't.

We can go spreadsheets for a while.

Miss Vicki's eyes will glaze over, but I'll be right there.

I'm getting better.

Yeah.

She's tired of hearing me talk about spreadsheets.

Okay.

Miss Vicki hit him with your question and then we'll roll in.

All right.

So, um, for those that are relatively, um, semi-experienced with, with racing, what do you guys tell

yourself?

Do you have a philosophy?

Do you have a motto?

What gets you going or what advice do you pass on to anybody else?

Uh, I'll, uh, I, I think that the, the best advice that I would try to share, and this

is something that I've, you know, incorporated from other people that I've, I've heard it

from the most important thing in endurance racing is to keep circulating.

Like it's not how fast to circulate.

It's not your lap time.

It's not whether you win a corner.

It is whether you are on the track, moving in a general direction that everybody else

is moving.

Um, cause if you can't stay out on the track, you can't succeed.

True.

Um, absolutely true.

What about you, Greg, your, your vast experience in endurance racing?

You've got to bring a lot to the table that our listeners are just waiting, waiting.

My exact one race.

That's right.

Uh, yeah, I mean, I think we got a little carried away with trying to go too fast at

times, at least Colton and I did.

Um, but you know, I think the, the biggest thing is that, um, don't be afraid to just

jump out and ask other people for information, for help, for parts, for tools.

Everybody is Robin pointed out is so welcoming, so helpful.

There was another far more advanced MR2 team there that had a trailer full of parts.

Shout out to them.

I wish I could remember their name.

Um, but they, they came up with all kinds of parts that, you know, might have solved our

problem on, uh, on day two, but, but they were, they were jumping in and trying to help us,

which was great.

So I think had we known four or five months ago, six months ago that we could reach out

to any of the teams, most likely, and they would have given us all the information, maybe

even stopped by if they're in Northern Virginia.

Maybe, maybe there was a podcast you could listen to, you know,

I'm just saying.

It's gotta be somebody.

Yes.

Look, look for the podcast before you go to your first race, not after.

That's a great advice.

You should learn that.

Now you're already on the, um, the, the Facebook pages, right?

The 24 hours, the unofficial 24 hours.

Sadly, I'm not, I'm not on Facebook.

No, that's not that, that's not that sad.

Don't worry.

It's really not that sad.

The only reason I have Instagram or Facebook is this, it is, I mean, this racing thing.

I actually had to start them for with us.

So yeah, what a fool.

Anyway, okay.

So we beat around the bush.

You guys went to your first race.

You came in out of 100 cars.

Your stellar B class MR two first gen came in with 200 and two laps and a rocket stopped

nowhere except at number 72.

So B class car 72.

Give us some more details.

What's going on?

Why is it?

Why is a B class car in 72?

There's, there's, there's gotta be stories.

I'm really, really proud of the, the amount of laps that we turned even though, you know,

as Greg said, we had 10 minute pit stops and a 10 minute pit stop was a quick pit stop

because we just, you know, we cruise in, you know, we checked in with each other, made

sure everyone was feeling okay.

We checked tire, tire pressure sometimes we sort of like, you know, ease our way out

of the car and ease the next guy in.

We had a fantastic time and I feel like we weren't super, super slow, you know, the

number of laps could have been better.

You weren't slow.

It's just, you know, I mean, unless you took like 75 pit stops, there's gotta be more

to, you know, you missed by like 220 from like the goal.

So, I mean, you know, unless you went and took a yacht race or something around the

paddock, there's more to this story, guys.

You're hiding something from me.

I'm thinking there's some black flags involved.

I'm thinking.

We did have one.

I think, you know, we were trying to get our lawyer involved.

I wish, you know, but he, you know, he, the claim was that we didn't see the caution

and Colton that was out there that missed a caution flag.

You're the first person in Lemons to ever say that.

Right.

So he got pulled in.

That took some time.

And then I think we got pulled a second time when Nick was on the track and they came in

and it was the wrong MR2 or something.

So we missed it a lot of time.

Okay.

All right.

We also did kind of short stints because being new racers and, you know, hearing advice

from older wiser teams than us that, you know, when you get out there, you have so much

information that you're taking in.

You know, there's a microphone right next to you.

I'm sorry.

Thanks.

You have so much information that you're taking in and it is so tiring and sort of like

taxing on your, you know, being able to make sense of the information that you're taking in.

That we, we kept people what like 15, 20 minutes stints at first and sort of gradually made those longer so that we could have a race car that wasn't watered up into a ball by the end of the weekend.

So the best advice I think we got day one, actually Friday practice was the second you feel comfortable in the car, take one more lap and come in.

Because when you're comfortable and you're feeling pretty good about things, you're going to get complacent.

Especially at your first race.

Especially at our first race.

So you got a B class car.

I'm looking at this.

I'm digging.

And then then I look and say, okay, what's your fastest lap?

Your fastest lap is a 142.

Okay.

I didn't look at how many you have.

Now, for instance, that puts you at number 90.

No, 89.

I'm sorry.

I don't want to under club your, your stellar performance.

And then there's this other team that's got a broken Honda Civic that had no V tech and they were going around at number 93.

So, so, so there's a B class car versus broken C class car and you're like three points higher.

So, so there's obviously some loose nuts behind the wheel that could use a little, a little improvement in skill, maybe.

Oh, absolutely.

Okay.

I know for sure that some of us.

Well, first of all, we, you know, we've had these cars probably since the beginning of COVID.

And then, you know, they sat and sat and sat until we get our act together.

And then last fall, so it was almost five years.

We checked everything, worked through everything, but then very first lap, I'm out there.

We're coming down the straightaway at speed.

And, oh man, it's time to, time to really check those brakes.

Yeah, brakes are, brakes are helpful.

Yeah.

So that got in my head a little bit.

So it became less racing around the track and more just kind of driving around the track.

Were you first driver in?

I think Colton was, wasn't he?

Okay.

I was going to say that's when you test your brakes, when they're doing those little yellow parade laps.

This was on Friday.

So I think I did the test and tuned.

Okay.

All right.

So 200 laps, 450 roughly for the total.

Did the car break?

It did.

It broke about four, three or four hours before the finish.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

Colton was really, you know, it was the fastest lap and then he shredded the transmission.

Nice.

So again, fastest in the family, but you know, didn't break the car.

That's still me.

You broke the car?

No, he broke the car.

No, no, no.

Family without breaking the car.

Okay.

So fastest lap of the race was lap 201 and you finished 202 on the hook.

Yeah.

Is that, is that what we're saying?

Yeah.

No, no, he, he sort of limped it home.

He limped it in.

Okay.

So he had, I think the fastest and the slowest lap within a lap of one another.

Oh, that's fantastic.

Consistency is the key to his game.

Yeah, exactly.

Wow.

There's some stories there.

We're going to have to pick on Colton a little more of another future podcast episode.

All right.

So what was your, your going in expectation for the idiocy and then you're coming out

understanding of the idiocy that is lemons off track and then on track.

On track.

It's some real racing.

It is.

Shockingly.

Like, yeah.

Shockingly.

I did not expect the intensity of racing that, that's involved with the kind of cars that

I expected.

So, which is fantastic.

I love that.

Our theme was, I would give it a D plus.

Okay.

I mean, we were so focused on the seat that last week and, and fixing the, the roll cage

and everything and making sure it was, you know, to spec that for so that we could pass

tech that we just kind of gave up on the theme, but that was an eye opener and you guys,

especially, so.

Five years crap theme and you're blaming it on the broomstick test.

I just, I just, you know, the project management, your pointing skills need to need, you need,

you need maybe to use two fingers next time.

So we didn't, when did we actually register?

I think we didn't, we didn't officially decide to do it.

I think not until like early September.

So we had about six, seven weeks of really time to prep for our first race.

Yeah.

Okay.

What about you, Robin?

You, you had some thoughts going into this craziness on track and.

Yeah.

Like there was one thing that really kind of surprised me and that was the number of cars

that were on track.

All of them.

Like, yeah.

Yeah.

You have the numbers in front of you.

I think it was what about 110 or so.

100, but that's, that's like the smallest lemons race we've ever done.

Yeah.

And it's, it's a two mile track.

So there was, there was never more than five or 10 seconds that you would really have a

clear track in front of you.

And since, as you correctly noted, we were slower than many of the other cars.

And like the, we got faster by the end of the weekend, which meant that we were slower

at the beginning of the weekend.

Yeah.

So it was, it was, it was continuously being passed.

Yeah.

And that experience was kind of intense.

Like it's not easy to stay on a racing line when you are making sure that you are trying

to keep from crashing other people.

There is no racing line.

There can be a racing line, but.

Not at the speed they were going.

It's, it's not on Saturday morning.

There is no race line on Saturday.

You might see one Sunday afternoon, but you won't see one all day Saturday.

Yeah.

Race line does not exist in lemons.

It's, it's a, if you're out in the middle of nowhere and it's open, you might get like

one or two turns with a racing line, but the rest of the time it's a.

Traffic management.

High speed traffic.

Yeah.

High speed traffic management and trying to use your skills and techniques to.

To advance.

Mm hmm.

It's fun.

Do a good time.

So, so what are your thoughts after, after seeing this debacle that we call lemons?

What are you, what are you thinking?

Does this float your boat?

Does this.

Yeah.

We didn't scare you away.

There's these crazy people dressed up as, you know, airplane people and.

Well, we're doing three more races.

We're not registered yet.

We've got to, we've got to make sure the transmission works, but we're planning to,

to go down to South Carolina.

Oh, CMP.

Okay.

We're going to do real hoopties of New Jersey.

Excellent.

Oh, I'm going to tell you flat out.

You think that was crazy.

Wait till you see that place.

Wait till you see hoopties.

Yeah.

It's a little, it's a little tense.

I mean, it's New Jersey.

Exactly.

Yes.

Okay.

So.

New Jersey is, I mean, we used to have one race earlier in the season.

It was Pittsburgh before it closed down.

But technically New Jersey for the, the East coast is,

is technically the beginning race of the season.

Even though it's not, it's the first warm weather one.

So everybody comes out for that one and all the nuttiness shows up.

All the crazy shows up.

Yeah.

So if you're theming, that's the race you theme for.

Cause everybody shows up.

Okay.

And, and looking at your car, you have a lot of steps to take to get there.

So you're saying there's room for improvement.

I mean, you know, you set the bar low on that first one.

I mean.

So, so we've gotten to the point with our car where we just buy wrap.

So we'll purchase some wrap and just design it and figure out what we're going to do

with it and just, you know, it doesn't work spray, spray, plastic dip.

That was our first car.

We didn't know anything about it.

Second car, but it was, it theoretically seemed like a good idea.

But it was a horrible idea.

It was, it was not the best, not the best, not the best.

Okay.

So with this vast experience that you guys have of 200 plus laps of lemons racing and,

you know, the, the skills and the knowledge that you've generated, I need three things

that either they should do or they should not do for a new team.

That's code for what did you screw up?

And did you get anything right?

Yeah.

Every time we got off the track, that's what we used to do was what went right.

What went wrong and what could we do better?

And we always, we always had a conversation about that when we got into this with the whole team.

And the first one was short and the second one was long and the third one was longer.

Yes.

So what do you think?

Give me three things.

Three things.

What do you think?

What did you do well or what did you do bad?

So I think one thing that we could probably do better is start early and, you know,

I mean, five years is pretty early dude.

You just have to start.

Right.

Well, you know, start early and commit.

Yes.

There we go.

Yeah.

And you should be theming for New Jersey now.

True.

I think one thing that we did well is I think that our team works together pretty well,

as far as everybody gets along with each other.

Everybody like looks out for each other and tries to accommodate each other's busy schedules

and each other's shortcomings in mechanical things like mine, for example,

with grace and humor.

And I think that's a very important part of getting along and hopefully having a team

that stays together for a long time.

What about you?

Oh, sorry.

That was two.

Sorry, Rob.

No, that's all right.

I can only count the two anyway.

I used both hands.

What about you, Greg?

Sounds like you need to point some more to get this team rolling earlier.

Yeah, we really got to commit on both the theme and the car.

We have that second MR2.

So we're always looking for more teammates to jump in because we'd love to get that

second car up and running.

It's just the same.

It's easier when you have to.

Yeah.

Well, and we've been trying not to pilfer from the other car to fix the blue car.

I've got a plan for you.

Here it is.

You ready?

Theme, both cars the same.

And if one breaks...

Just roll it out of the trailer.

No windows.

I mean, they're pretty identical.

Yeah.

That's what I mean.

If you theme them the same, boom.

Running both through tech, you might actually finish the race.

It'll be fun.

And if you think some of the point was crowded, wait till you see New Jersey.

Yeah.

I mean, I think the other thing we commented on already a little bit was that we were

really patient.

We knew it's our first race where if we were to finish, I think that would be a huge victory

for us.

Absolutely.

For everybody.

Another 202 laps, but that 202nd lap is actually crossing the finish line.

Fantastic.

We'll be thrilled with that.

So the first race passing tech getting that whole experience, that was huge.

I mean, for us, that was the very first checkered flag.

Did you finish Saturday?

Yeah, we did finish Saturday.

Okay.

So you took the one checker?

Yeah.

You're halfway there.

Quick shout out to three-petal mafia.

Those guys?

Yeah.

So we sat next to them at the banquet on Saturday night.

And we were asking those guys for advice.

And I really wish I could ID them in a lineup.

Jeff?

His name?

Eric?

Chris?

Chrissy?

Scruffy looking, I'm not sure.

That doesn't narrow it down on that team.

Most of them are scruffy.

Oh, it was probably Greg or Bruce.

Yeah.

So Bruce sounds familiar.

Dark care?

Bruce.

It was Bruce.

Bruce is bearded.

We asked, so for tomorrow, what time do people show up?

Oh, well, I mean, you got to be there a couple hours early before a lineup for sure.

Oh, Jesus.

You want to be lined up and ready to go at least one hour before you get prepped, get

the car warmed up for sure.

It's going to be cold tomorrow.

Really?

That seems early.

No, no, you'll see guys lining up early, at least an hour.

It won't be those two.

If it's either one of those two.

They're famous for not making the checker flag to start.

We swallowed that hook so hard.

Our team showed up.

It was still dark out.

And we sat there forever.

We watched a few of the judges doing the walk of shame back to their trailer.

Yeah.

We watched.

I mean, no one was awake because we're rolling in ready to get the car ready.

I mean, so we were still cooking breakfast.

Yeah, they got us with that one.

That's pretty funny.

It's part of the fun.

We themed with them.

So, you know, they're kind of, there are sister team that doesn't admit that they are.

So that's fine.

That's fine.

Yeah, they were actually in our paddock.

Yeah.

They are, they are playing it up with us as well.

All right.

Was that three for you, Greg?

I lose track.

No.

Is that me?

We did a lot of things wrong.

We did so many things wrong.

So what's, so what's, what's going to be the top of the list there?

Project manager dude.

Getting the transmission fixed and just taking it a little bit easier on the car.

But, you know, I mean, that's probably the biggest thing and maybe figuring

out our pits a little bit better than we lost so much time as at least,

you know, probably 50 laps easy in pit time.

So, I mean, doing the pit changes.

I mean, out of our first race, we did half hour driver stints.

So we did the same as you just to make sure that everybody was safe.

Well, our thing was same as you get through tech and get everybody one step.

And that was, that was enough.

And then the rest of it was all glory.

And then we were idiots.

We finished the race driving home.

We said, wow, that was fun.

That was easy.

I had bought two cars to start with.

This is, this is kind of thematic to me buying cars.

But anyway, and on the way home, we're like, hey, let's do two cars at the next race.

It sounds kind of familiar to your story.

It's not the same.

It's not even close to the same.

So it's way different.

It's like six X, not two X.

So it's a logistical nightmare, but that's okay.

Is that on account of just more things to go wrong in more places?

Like what makes it so much harder?

I don't know if I respond with lack of, lack of focus or scatter or just distribute

chaos.

It's a, well, you got to realize we started with two teenagers, Vicki and I, none of

us had ever raced.

So we went to the next race and now we've got two cars, three teenagers, two cars,

at least your cars are the same.

So two MR2s.

We didn't even have that.

And then we've got three more new racers and the experienced crew of us with one race

in.

So it was in the bottle.

And the cars are breaking.

And the cars were breaking.

You're fine unless the car breaks.

And our trailer broke.

Everything broke.

And we rented.

And it was super hot weekend and it lost the generator.

So we had no air in that one.

And it parked it next to a gas generator from the team next to us.

So we had to open up the windows with the generator right outside the window.

It was great.

Yeah.

The most expensive shed I've ever rented.

So it was terrible.

So two cars is hard.

I would not tell you not to do it, but I would, I would warn you it might not be the best

plan.

I think, I think we're going to wait.

We'll see at least give another couple of races.

Yeah.

That would be good.

I would, I would absolutely make sure that your car is solid before you put another one

on.

And even then, even then.

Yeah.

I mean, you've had five years to get one car on track.

Why not do two in six months?

That'd be great.

I can't wait to see the theme.

Yeah.

Well, you got to commit and then you got to do, do you know what you need?

You need a podcast to tell us all this stuff.

All right.

So Robin, before you got on, Greg was complaining about how you wrote him into this tragedy

of a podcast and said, you know, why are we here?

Why, why did he make me do this?

What's going on?

And he blamed you.

So Robin, why, why are you here?

Um, well, I was here because one of the questions that we had and one of the things that we

needed to work out in our team was figuring out how teams are budgeted in a way that's,

you know, fair for both like the owner of the car, for the participants, for the pit

crew, like, how do you figure that all out?

How do you distribute that among the people?

And what happens if there's an accident?

Who pays for that?

Like, I think that we've arrived at a solution that makes sense for us, but it'd be great

to hear, you know, what other people have done.

And you guys have done a fantastic job of educating me through me going through your

back catalog and, um, downloading some, uh, uh, checklists from your, your website too.

Oh, I need to update those.

Those are, those are rolled among like 65 now.

I think you got like 26 or something.

They're still super useful.

Um, good.

But like, we kind of wanted to hear what you guys do on your team, like how do you, you

know, if somebody's new, a new driver on your team, how do you treat them?

If somebody's, you know, a pit crew, how do you treat them as far as the budget, as

far as their contribution goes?

Okay.

So lots of, lots of teams do lots of different things.

So there's, there's no one size fits all for this.

And we probably do this really poorly to be fair.

Um, so pit crew, if they're not driving, no charge, like none.

I will gladly take any help I can get because, uh, I've got 11 thumbs on two hands.

So I'm, I'm, uh, I'm excellent at getting stuff and handing you tools that I may know

what they look like.

But, uh, Miss Vicki's, uh, one of our senior wrenches, even though she said I'm still in

training and we've got a couple others on the team that do that.

So, so what we typically do, and I'm not saying this is what you should do.

I'm just saying what we do is, um, one of the things we like to do is get as many people

into the sport as we can.

So a lot of times we'll have people come in that are brand new to the team and we'll put

them in the car.

Um, but if we do, I'm pretty simple with anybody who's in our car.

That's not like specifically on our team in that I add up everything on an Excel spreadsheet

for the weekend.

I divide it by the number of drivers and that's how we do it.

Cause I'm not looking to make a profit on this.

I'm just looking to make the hole that I did go down slower.

Um, you know, nobody's making a mortgage after, after a lemons race.

And, you know, if we do win, like we won the Halloween to meet gasoline, we donate the

prize to the charity because, you know, the amount of money we spent, that's not going

to really do much different.

It's just, it's a little shallower hole, but it's still a hole.

So, you know, just give it a charity.

It's fine.

And, uh, who wants 2000 nickels anyway?

Um, so that's what we do.

Uh, some other teams, they'll run with an owner who is responsible for the car.

And, um, the drivers either, um, contribute for the cost of the race or for sometimes

they'll, they'll contribute to the maintenance or something.

It gets hard when the car gets split up with like three or four people.

Cause then it's just, it's arguments.

Typically not that people don't do it.

They have four people.

There are four equal owners to the car and they all put in whatever it is.

And if something happens to the car, they all put in whatever it is.

Some other teams do it with, uh, you break it, you help us fix it.

You don't have to fix it like some people fix it with a check and some people fix it

with sweat labor and some people fix it with parts and time or whatever.

It's, it's really, there is no one size fits all for this.

I, did I miss any Vic that you can remember?

It's, it's, it's whatever feels right.

And you know, usually there's one or two key people for each car.

Like we have multiple cars for our team and each car has a,

a significant one or two people who are kind of like the responsible parties.

And we're talking about lemons here.

So obviously responsible parties has quotes.

It's in quotes.

Two or three sets of quotes there.

So, you know, I mean, I mean, one of our guys,

we can't get him to keep his clothes on, but that's different.

He didn't, he wasn't able to make it today.

Thankfully, cause he'd probably be naked, but that's fine.

So.

No, don't say that.

Not naked, but no, he'd probably be wearing Jennifer's clothes or something,

but that's fine.

You make it sound worse.

I have pictures to prove this, but anyway, okay.

Yes, we do.

Lots of pictures of Jeremy wearing Jennifer's clothes.

It's part of the team.

So it really, I can't tell you this is what works because it all works depending on the team and the makeup of the team.

So it's kind of, you know, you guys can kind of hash it together and see what it is.

Usually it's one or two people.

Sometimes it's all four or five, whatever.

We have a bunch of cars.

We have a bunch of people and we do things weirdly differently.

So.

The nice thing is though, is that the more you obviously, the more you do it and when

you first jump in, you know, and I use this term, it's like getting hit in the face with a fire hose.

There's just so much information, but the more you do it, the more that starts to become background.

So, but if you have like your four people that are broken up in your team, so you have your mechanic,

your sous chef, you have your person in charge of the paddock and then you have your person,

which is overall organizer and runner.

If you have those four things and people can crisscross, then, you know, you guys will be okay.

But that's usually like the base foundation for setting up the four man team.

And, you know, organization is just key with this.

And some people do have like contracts.

Like if thou break the car, then thou shalt fix, you know, or whatever.

You know, if somebody on here was like in the legal profession, they might know how to write these things.

Yeah.

I think this is fun.

So that's kind of to me, that's too far.

It's, I'm not saying it's not necessary.

It depends on the people, right?

Yeah.

I don't want to race with the people where I need that.

So I try to avoid that.

What's that?

We're thinking about a damage deposit.

You can.

I mean, it depends.

You know, are they, are they core team member?

Are they core team member or are they arriving drive?

That's, that's also.

Yeah.

There's also a difference between core team and arriving drives.

You know, if they're core team members, that usually gets different than arriving driver.

But arriving drive gets to be more of a business transaction than a friend's friends going slowly around circles.

So it's whatever feels right for you has been done.

There's, there's no rocket science involved with this.

I mean, look at your race times.

There's no rocket science involved with this.

It seems to me also that it's kind of critical to have matched expectations.

I've heard, I've heard from, you know, other teams who've come on your podcast where there were some bad feelings involved because there was, you know, some tweaking of equipment.

And there may not have been clear expectations or maybe there were clear expectations and they just weren't fulfilled as to what happens next.

Well, you've got competing agendas for, you know, what's most important to finish the race or to go fast.

And I can go fast and wear the car out or I can go fast after.

Well, now I can go fast and not wear the car out.

So there's differences there.

And then there's, you know, oh, the car broke, you know, and then I crashed or oh, they hit me.

And then you start getting into finger pointing and stuff.

And then some people handle that well and some people not so well.

So it's always better to have that understood before.

You have absolutely figured out how to go slow and wear the car out.

Yeah, exactly.

So you're halfway to almost good.

So which puts you above half the lemons field.

So don't worry about it.

You're doing fine.

But the money gets in the way of the fund sometimes.

So sometimes it's just, you know, I've heard of teams where you're behind the wheel.

I don't care.

And then I've heard the other thing like if it's obviously your fault, then this and if it's not, then, you know, we'll figure it out.

And usually the way I like to see it or the way I think works best or the way I prefer is, you know, if you're driving the car and you hit somebody or you hit a wall or somebody hits you, help us get the car back on.

That's all.

And, you know, that can be right to check or we'll see you next weekend or what somewhere in between, whatever.

So, you know, it all depends.

Pretty recently, serious conversation before the first race about what happens, you know, as the car owner, you know, I just kind of assumed the risk that anyone driving the car, anything could happen at any time.

Yeah, don't put it on track if you can't afford to say goodbye to it.

Exactly.

So, you know, that was not a big deal.

And I think, you know, no one wants to be the person that wrecks the car because then you kind of ruin the weekend.

Yeah, for sure.

That's more the bigger issue.

You know, I think as far as all the other expenses, we were trying to figure out, you know, anything permanently added to the vehicle that, you know, the value is retained with the vehicle.

If, you know, we decide to sell it to some other knucklehead that's that wants to do lemons.

Sure.

I pay for that.

Yeah.

But consumables like oil, fuel, brakes, parts, et cetera, depending on the part.

Oh, you rookie, you forgot tires.

Yeah, tires.

I mean, you get the list of consumables goes on and on and on.

So, we said, okay, if it's if we all agree that's consumable, then that's kind of put in the pot for the drivers to share the expense.

Yeah.

Everything else is my expense.

We kind of budget four tires per race because there's certain sets of tires that you can get that is four tires per race.

There's other sets of tires you can get that are faster that are eight tires per race.

We suck.

So we do four tires per race.

We do the slower tires, but they were like iron.

So that's kind of the plan.

So that covers, you know, some races we get more than one.

Some races we flat spot seven tires.

It's somewhere in between.

And, you know, it works out.

So usually I just attribute like one tire per driver.

Are they a sponsor of the podcast?

Not yet, but I'm trying, man.

I'm really trying.

Who are they?

I want to know.

You want the tire that wears like iron?

Handcook RS4s.

I'm about to put my order in for a bunch of them too.

And they're the sponsor for Lucky Dog.

Yeah, they are.

Official tire for Lucky Dog.

But they're, they're, they're not the fastest,

but they do wear like iron, you know,

and so I think you guys were talking about how to minimize

costs and how to save some money because racing is not cheap.

And the best answer I can get you is unless you have something

specific, we can go over now.

No problem because you're going to have literally hundreds of

different things that you're going to need to buy or think

about buying and you might as well just email me or call me.

And, you know, we'll tell you what we know,

which is, is of some value above zero,

but not full dollar somewhere in there.

And I'll tell you, like you can do, you know,

like the tires, if you want something that's just going to

wear like iron and decently fast RS4s,

if you want something that's a little faster,

you want the Aventus and if you want something that,

hey, I'm going for the wind, you want the RE71 RS,

it's no problem anytime, but your budget's going to go up.

And up, and up.

So it all depends on what you want.

And right now you're, you're at the level of suck that you

should do the RS4s and you should probably do that for a while.

So, so it's kind of fun.

I mean, I think on the website,

we still have our list of things that we recommend and,

you know, certain tips and tricks and stuff,

but we did not do a good enough job of setting up the,

hey, this is what we think is the best bang for the buck

kind of stuff.

And I should probably do that, but well,

do you all bring a pit bike?

Vicki does.

I walk.

A lot of teams do it.

Really, it depends on where you're at.

If you're at pit race, yeah,

you're bringing something because it is huge,

but you don't have to worry about going there anymore.

If you're at summit point, it's small.

Yeah.

Summit point, not really.

New Jersey, not really.

Probably.

It's kind of borderline, borderline.

Thompson depends where you park.

If you're parked in the garages,

no, if you're parked in the,

by the hill, maybe probably if you're parked out in the oval.

Oh yeah.

You better bring something.

You might have to.

So it does make it easier getting around because sometimes,

depending on you where you are at the track,

you are pretty tired midway through the day

and you're just like, oh, I got to lug something up.

And you just like trying to run around.

I personally have a scooter that I,

an electric scooter that I kind of run around on.

Bicycles work great.

And, you know, when we had the bigger track,

occasionally we would bring out the Vespa.

Or the golf cart.

Some people bring golf carts.

Some people have a golf cart.

You know, some people build their own wacky stuff

and they just drive them around.

You might see that at New Jersey.

There's a, there's a particular team called the Lemonation.

Lemon Terrians.

The Lemon Terrians.

And they are a group of knucklehead,

talentally knucklehead fabricators and mechanics.

And, and they just build the wackiest stuff on the side.

And they just drive them around.

It's pretty funny.

Yep.

And they drive a 64 foot long Cadillac on the track.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

I think the Cadillac had chandeliers on,

on both front end above the headlight headlamps.

Yeah.

They had two chandeliers that were just driving.

It's like Dr. Detroit, right?

Oh my gosh.

They had a, they had a full size model of a big daddy Don

Garlitz's dragster on top of it one year.

It was fantastic.

Yeah.

They did that too.

They had a dragster on top of it,

the car driving around.

I haven't seen the,

I haven't seen them elimination in a while.

Lemon Terrians.

I haven't seen them in a while,

but usually they show up at Jersey.

Yeah.

Jersey and Thompson.

What else do you guys want for budgets?

Is there anything else that's coming to mind?

You guys mentioned radios.

We could do radios.

Yeah.

Definitely radios.

Our radios suck because we didn't have one.

We used the air pods and then we kept our phone in the car on

the mount.

Yeah.

That's a tremendously terrible idea.

Yeah.

And then,

but then somebody had to stay on the line with you the entire

time you're out there.

So that,

that was,

that was our best idea as a workaround,

but it got old listening to nothing.

And then,

and then at some point while I was on the track,

Colton forgot he was supposed to be talking to me and I was in his

pocket the entire time.

And I'm, you know,

looking for information and all I hear is background noise and

people laughing and having a good time,

not on the track in my ear while I'm trying to drive.

So that didn't work out well.

Yep.

I can imagine that would,

that would not be great.

So we've got an episode that we had with Scott Samson probably four

years ago.

And he owns Samson Racing Communication SRC.

There's lots of different ways and for each dollar level,

you get more functionality.

And I'm not saying go get a motorsport grade radio system for

Motorola that's like 10 K and then put the,

you know,

however much it costs to get it inside your helmet.

The big thing you got to deal with is race cars.

Yours may not be loud,

but the rest of them can be loud.

So you need to have a decent amount of volume and you need to

have a decent amount of coverage over a fairly large space.

So radios, you can do it the cheap way and struggle.

You can do it the medium way and do pretty well or you could

just go whole hog and get the stuff that the big boys use.

I'm kind of a midway kind of guy.

So, you know, we use Balfang radios.

If he listens to the episode,

he'll go over how to put the wiring into the car,

how to where to mount your antenna and on the little details

like that.

And I think we actually had them programmed the radio.

So we have our own little channels that we can talk to like

amongst the pit and then amongst the cars so we can talk to

individual cars and or amongst everybody in the pit.

I think the radios, we have a bottom in a few years,

they're probably like $150 maybe, I don't know.

And then everything you put into the car is another couple

hundred dollars.

So it's not terrible.

Always make more radios than less.

We have a line on our scheduling board that says barf for

bring a radio.

I can't remember what the last word is,

but you know, so everybody has a radio all weekend and just a

reminder and you know, everybody forgets it.

So far, we haven't had many left in the bathroom.

So that's a that's a plus.

We're calling it a plus.

But radios are tough.

The other key thing that really helps out with communication in

our paddock is a large whiteboard that we break down.

And it breaks down everybody's job.

Everything.

And a time slots everybody's going to be in and where they need

to be.

And that's set in the morning.

So everybody knows who's going to be in the hot pit at what time

and everybody knows who's going to be in the car at what time

and inside the car we have a little stick on timer,

a little clock that's in there so we could see the hours that we

go into.

And underneath on that slot of that whiteboard and you know,

the bill can send you a picture of it and you know,

we can reach out to it.

We also have a section of stuff that we need to bring next time

that we obviously have missed and we write it down because every

time we grab something that's not there,

we put it on the board that we know to bring it to the next race.

And then we also have a runner list underneath of it also.

So that way if something's going on with a car or something like

that, somebody's radioing in, we write it down so we know what

to check in the evening.

We know these things are going wrong and because communications

going all the time, all the time,

but at least this way it's set.

Everybody has a predicted, you know,

they're predicted about what time they're supposed to be in and

if they have their radios or they're carrying their phones and

things change, then they can go ahead and make those lists or

they can make those corrections.

But that is like the fastest way that we figured out that everybody

is on the same page and things can slightly move in different

directions after that.

And I tell you that has the big whiteboard has been the saving

grace for the teams that we hand out the,

like the teams that we're on now,

like everybody has a whiteboard in the groups that we hang out

with.

We have a whiteboard, but I don't think we were very good at using

it.

Yeah, I've got a template.

I have a template that seems to work and you know,

I've, I've made a few of these things.

We have a vinyl printer cutter actually.

So I print up whiteboards and it is.

Yeah.

It's kind of like theming a whiteboard.

I know you're not familiar with this concept of theming.

We'll talk about that at some point,

but you know, blue car, yeah, whatever.

Yeah.

Blue is not a theme, but yeah.

Yeah.

Well, that would be a theme at least, but yeah.

So the theme was actually Ikea.

It was one tool racing and we had some elements of that theme

together, but, and Greg did a bunch of great work.

We got like, you know, blue nylon shirts.

We were carrying around Allen wrenches.

We had ideas of like making a big Allen wrenched amount to the

top of the car.

So after, after seeing your first lemons race,

do you feel that that is up to the level that you need to

perform at or already self-evaluated at a D plus.

So, okay.

All right.

Just making sure that you realize how weak cheese that was,

but, you know, yeah, it was terrible.

And I think it takes going to a lemons race to realize how

deep the theming has to go.

Oh yeah.

Cause like we were doing this, like, is this, is this going to

be funny?

And obviously it wasn't all that terribly funny, but, you know,

like it's, it's amazing.

Like the first thing I started to tell people about this when I,

you know, do my spiel for the 200th person that I tried to hook

into lemons racing, you know, when I talk to them about it,

it's like, all right, there are cars that are covered in

astroturf.

There are cars that, you know, um, you know, have a pacman,

you know, mounted on them and the numbers are, are, are ghosts.

And of course, then they ask, so is it a demolition derby?

It's like, not intentionally, but some cars look like it is,

but that's a difference.

Yeah.

Um, it's, it's hard to understand the depth of the theming

until you actually see it and experience it.

Um, so I think we're going to take our lessons going forward.

Okay.

I'm just making sure that you've grown as racetrackers.

And certainly for my height,

at least we have to have a decent theme.

Listen, we, we, we had a full taps, uh,

uh, ceremony for our car after we broke it when we were doing

our top gun theme, we had the car come in, we had a sheet,

we played taps on the, on the trumpet.

We had, you know, uh, a ceremony with a priest leading over it.

You know, then you, you go the general rule for theming is if you

think of it, yes, that's just don't just yes, do that.

And when you think of something else, do that too.

And did you bring the trumpet thinking that your car was going

to make it through the weekend?

No, but we found one just in case.

No, we found awesome.

That's awesome.

Oh, Scott Sampson was episode 201.

So that's some research in my background.

So yeah, just, uh, if you think it's too much,

then do a little bit more and you'll be fine.

Yeah.

I don't think there is such a thing as over the top.

No, if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing a hundred percent.

So yeah, um, anything else with the budgeting and,

and racing that you guys wanted to get into?

Cause I want you to get your money's worth cause you,

you made this episode happen.

I mean, you know, we blame you.

Is there any time, I know we talked about the chaos and,

you know, six X with two cars other than only needing one

trailer to put two cars in.

Is there any economies of scale of having more than one car?

You share common parts and you only have metric tools.

I mean, we had no common parts and we had one car that was

English and one car that was metric.

So we had zero, like, like probably negative zero of

commonality.

So it was, it was just a mess.

So, uh, you'll be closer to zero than we would,

but I wouldn't, I wouldn't think so.

Cause you don't, you mentioned it earlier in the podcast,

you brought a lot of stuff, you prepared a lot of stuff

and then you went there and you found out you didn't have

anything you needed.

We didn't have the one thing we needed.

Get used to that.

You know, like what's something we need to bring?

Oh, a transmission.

It could be the weak spot of your car.

Talk to the other MR2 team and say, Hey, is the transmission

a weak spot or do we just suck?

And if it's a weak spot, guess what you're bringing to the

track?

Another transmission, but only bring to the track what

you're willing to do.

Like you don't bring an engine and a transmission if you're

not willing to put it in, cause then you're just wasting

time.

After removing the transmission from our MR2,

it made me realize we could have, like it's an 80 to 100

pound transmission.

It's not that big and we could brought a spare.

Yeah.

There's engine voice.

There's engine voice in the paddock.

There's welders in the paddock.

There's, there's welders as in the piece of equipment and

there's welders as in the person who does it.

So yeah, you know, he's a welder.

Our mechanic is also a welder.

Yeah.

Brought the welder with us.

I think we will bring the other car this time.

Yeah.

Find a way to put all the other equipment that we need

somehow in the trailer.

Yeah.

And we'll find a way to bring the other car and we can

steal from it if we have to.

Yeah.

I mean, at one race we had the, and you're not going to get

this to happen very often, but at one race, it was actually

at CMP, we got the junkyard to bring us the parts car and

they just left their flatbed with the car on it and we

took what we needed and then we paid them at the end of

the weekend.

I don't know.

That's Southern hospitality that you're not going to see

in New Jersey.

I'll tell you that.

But, you know, we, we didn't bring a spare car, but we had

a spare car brought to us, which was even better

actually, but, you know.

Yeah.

And there was enough people in that paddock you could have

got back out there if you had the parts.

And I can tell you I've got three or four apps on my

phone.

I can find you a part, even an MR2.

So it's not going to be pretty.

It's not going to be clean, but it'll fit in your car and

make it go round and round some more.

Sundays are hard though, because sometimes the pick and

pulls are dead.

But if it breaks on Saturday, we'll get you in there for

Sunday.

So we were at, I don't know if we were at a race or we

heard about a race in, on the East Coast where instead of

going to, what was it, the salvage yard or the place in

order to get the parts, they actually paid the guy to put

the car on a trailer and bring it to them.

And they pulled everything off the car that they needed.

I don't know if it was an engine or they got into an

accident or something, but they just had the whole car

brought to them and they just started pulling everything

off of it.

Were you just playing with the cat?

Because I just said that, but that's okay.

Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, I kind of was.

I'm like, you know, the water is wet.

Sorry about that.

I got distracted.

You know what?

I hear water is wet.

Oh really?

You can just edit that whole part out.

Nope, I'm leaving it in.

We're running it live.

I'm just sleeping in the bathtub tonight.

It's good.

I was just about to say go walk into the bathtub.

Yep, there I go.

Sorry about that.

That's okay.

The big thing is, as you probably found out painfully,

so the big thing is prep, prep the car, prep everything.

Ideally you have everything in your trailer packed and ready,

not food, the weekend before the race.

You'll never do it, but that's the goal.

We were there the day before.

Yeah, but the week before is so much nicer,

because the last thing you want to do is be rushing around

and tired going into the race weekend,

because the race weekend can kill you.

Not literally, but figuratively.

I was not prepared for how tired I was after the weekend.

The post-race hangover is real.

Yeah, that's what we call that.

It is 100% real.

Don't feel bad.

Everybody feels it.

I don't care how old they are.

They still feel it.

It was great seeing you out there.

Actually, now that I can see your faces,

I didn't know if Robin was Robin or Robin was Robin.

I didn't know who Robin was until I saw him.

Then I was like, oh, okay.

I remember you guys there.

It was great racing with you.

We didn't get to talk to you as much as we did,

because most of our time was either fixing our Jalopy

or theming, or to be fair, eating.

But that's what we do.

We paddock hard.

We can't race for doodle,

but we can paddock with the best of them.

We're really glad you guys had a great time at your first race.

Hopefully we'll see you again.

We won't be at a CMP this year,

but NJMP will be there.

Looking forward to it.

We're just so excited.

Our paddock game is weak.

That's another area where we've got a lot of lessons learned.

Bring a grill, bring more lawn chairs,

more equipment to tailgate, to paddock.

The other thing too that we learned for the paddock game,

and I'm not sure if Bill had already mentioned this,

Crock-Pot Your Meals.

Crock-Pot Meals, you put them in in the morning.

Breakfast is just the stuff that you could do with the...

We have a flat top griddle grill.

So that kind of does a lot of our work.

But Crock-Pot Meals are what saves the day for us,

and we just cook up our meals, freeze them up,

and then we pop them in for lunchtime,

and then we pop them in for dinner.

Maybe kind of break them down that way.

And that just saves a lot of time,

especially if you have the Crock-Pots,

and they have the liners in them.

You could buy liners.

And that way you could just pull the whole liner out,

put another one in.

Don't have to worry about cleaning up.

And you always have a hot meal ready for you.

Washing a Crock-Pot sucks.

Some point in October was nice.

I was really...

I don't know how you felt, Robin,

but I was really tired of eating a meal out of a wrapper.

Yeah.

So I think some of ours is that we'll do a...

I think my sister does a roast beef in the gravy part,

and she'll make roast beef sandwiches with the gravies on it.

We can get the bag salads that come out of Costco.

You know, so we throw those out.

Another good meal is like a pulled pork.

Chilies, it usually works, but it does need the chili.

Sometimes we just do like meatball sandwiches, which is good.

But just do that cooking up in the packages

and just throw it right in your freezer

and just forget about until race day.

You know, I know that Chris and Chrissy,

they do a casserole for breakfast.

And I think what it is,

is they'll throw the ground sausage in there, hash brown.

They just put a bag of hash browns in there, shredded potato hash brown.

They'll throw their meat in there,

and then they'll throw whipped eggs.

And they'll put that in there.

And I think they'll mix a little bit of cheese in with it,

and then they'll put that out the night before on low.

And then when you wake up,

everybody's got a whole casserole that they'll have in the morning to eat.

So if you have any questions about something like that,

just call us.

We can give up some suggestions.

You know, reach out to us.

Because there's nothing worse than having something you don't have to think about.

You just put it in in the morning and it's ready for lunch.

And they want to soon lunches over and you put it in and it's ready for dinner.

Indeed.

Well, it was nice to officially meet you too.

I remember seeing you in the paddock.

I remember at least one of you playing with our dog.

And she was a fun puppy there.

So she had a good time.

And like I said,

we've had three burners in our family before that one.

Yeah.

My wife requires me to stop and pet every burner I see and send her pictures if she's not there.

Yeah.

Not a problem.

It's available anytime.

If you guys do need any help, you know how to grab me.

And if you want good help,

I can tell you somebody else who knows stuff.

And if not, I can give you the answers that'll lead to a strike.

So it'll be fine.

It'll be fine.

Yep.

Well, we really appreciate the advice,

appreciate all the information and in the hospitality for sure.

So thank you very much.

And serious reach out.

You know, you have our information now.

You could text us with any questions.

It doesn't have to be, you know, a full podcast,

but you know, anything, any questions you have just, just reached out.

We're always available.

Yeah.

And we may not have the best answer, but we've got our answer.

And, you know, that may be better than no answer.

And we have lots of people who might have the right answer.

Yeah.

We know people.

They don't admit knowing us, but we know people.

You know who you are out there.

Yeah.

So we're back.

Thank you guys.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

Have a great night.

Thank you.

We're going to kind of do an intro.

Do you guys, how your first race went?

And then some questions and things regarding budgets and saving money,

I guess was kind of the theory.

See, the proud thing is you ask a question and said,

you should do an episode on this and our standard response is,

sure, why don't you come on and we'll talk about it.

Sucker.

Which is perfectly reasonable.

Exactly.

Marketing is hard.

But I'll tell you a little secret.

It doesn't have to be, let me point something out.

You're listening to a podcast right now and it's great.

You love the host.

You seek it out and download it.

You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom.

Podcasts are a pretty close companion.

And this is a podcast ad.

Did I get your attention?

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About this episode

The Ironbird Racing Team shares their first-hand experience racing in the 24 Hours of Lemons, covering everything from passing tech inspections and managing a tight roll cage fit for tall drivers, to the challenges of endurance racing and team dynamics. They discuss budgeting, car preparation, pit strategies, communication tools like radios, and the importance of teamwork and patience. The episode also dives into the fun and chaos of theming cars, paddock life, and practical tips for new teams on how to survive and thrive in this unique grassroots racing series.

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Original notes

GHiT 0752: The Costs of Racing with the Ironbird Racing Team

We received a question from a listener about an episode themed at the costs of racing and ways to monitor and control them (lol). We thought it might be a great idea to have them come on and ask anything they wished, so we did. Welcome to the podcast from Ironbird Racing, Robin and Greg.

Did we miss something? Please let us know at [email protected]

A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/752Ironbird

We hope you enjoy this episode!

If you would like to help grow our podcast and high-performance driving and racing:

You can subscribe to our podcast on the podcast provider of your choice, including the Apple podcast app, Google music, Amazon, YouTube, etc.

Also, if you could give our podcast a (5-star?) rating, that we would appreciate very much. Even better, a podcast review would help us to grow the passion and sport of high performance driving and we would appreciate it.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Ben, Alan, Jeremy, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes in Training Podcast and Garage Heroes in Training racing team drivers

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