“Qualify last” means they were the slowest in the pre-race speed test. That usually puts them at the back when the race starts, which makes it harder to win—but it’s not impossible.
“Finish last” means they ended the race in the last place. In racing, that usually indicates something went wrong, even if the team tried to recover through strategy.
“24 hours” means the race lasts a full day. In that kind of race, winning depends not just on speed, but also on staying reliable and making smart pit stops.
A “paddock” is the backstage area at a race where teams work on the cars and meet people. The speaker is saying the team environment feels unusually friendly compared to what they’ve seen elsewhere.
NASCAR is a popular type of car racing in the U.S., mostly on oval tracks. People often follow it like a full season sport, similar to other major leagues.
LMP3 cars are purpose-built race cars made for endurance racing. They’re a common “next step” category for teams and drivers moving up in prototype racing.
IMSA is a big organization that runs sports-car races in North America. When someone says “IMSA,” they usually mean the major endurance-style racing series.
SRO is the group that runs certain racing series, especially for GT cars. In this episode, they’re comparing what it’s like to work in that kind of series versus IMSA.
Road America is a well-known race track in the U.S. It’s the kind of track that can really test tires because of how long and demanding the corners are.
VIR is shorthand for Virginia International Raceway, a U.S. road course with a mix of fast and technical corners. It’s mentioned alongside other tracks to show how the speaker’s racing experience expanded.
Pirelli is a tire manufacturer and major supplier in motorsport. The speaker specifically notes how Pirelli’s tire team worked in that series, connecting tire specialist work to real on-track operations.
A tire specialist is a team member focused on tire selection, setup, and operational execution during a race weekend. The speaker emphasizes that it’s not just checking pressures—it’s a key engineering role that supports performance and strategy.
A pit stop is when a race car pulls into the pits to get serviced, usually including changing tires. It’s a fast, coordinated operation done during the race.
A tire changer is the pit crew member responsible for removing and installing tires quickly and safely during a race. The speaker describes being part of the process by holding equipment for the tire changer during a pit stop.
A hose wrangler is a pit crew role that manages hoses and connections so the tire-changing and fueling equipment can operate without snagging or slowing the stop. It’s a specialized crew job tied to the choreography of pit stops.
The Jeep Wrangler is an SUV made for off-road driving. It’s built to handle dirt and rough trails better than many regular cars. The podcast mentions it in the context of people doing practical work around vehicles, like during service or pit stops.
This is a racing series tied to VP Racing Fuels. Here it matters because it affects scheduling—one car is racing while the other is in a different session.
Term
tire wise
In racing, “tire wise” means what you’re responsible for with tires. That includes choosing the right tires and making sure the team has enough sets for the sessions ahead.
“Rims” are the wheel’s metal structure that tires are mounted onto. In racing, rim handling matters because teams need the correct wheel setup for the tire plan, and they coordinate tire changes and fitment with the rest of the car crew.
“Rains” means whether rain is expected. Rain changes what tires work best, so the team plans ahead for it.
Term
Michelin racks
“Michelin racks” are Michelin’s way of organizing and transporting tire sets. The tire specialist picks them up so the team has the right tires available when it’s time to change them.
A tire pressure sensor is a small electronic device in the wheel that measures what’s going on inside the tire. It can send that info wirelessly so the team (and officials) know the tire pressure is within rules.
Racing series set rules about how low tire pressure is allowed to go. If the sensors can’t report properly, officials may treat it as a rules problem and penalize the car.
A drive-through penalty means you have to go through the pit lane at limited speed during the race. It’s a penalty for rule violations, like failing to meet tire sensor requirements.
An endurance race is a long race where the car has to keep going for a long time, usually with pit stops and driver changes. Because it’s longer, the team may have more wear-and-tear and more sensor-related work.
Racing sensors are little electronic devices that collect data about the car and help the team make decisions. Here, the important part is that these sensors are inside the wheel, so you have to take the tire off to change them.
Term
purging process
After the tire is taken off and put back on, you can’t just bolt it together and go. The team has to run a process to clean out unwanted air/contamination and make sure the tire is set up correctly again.
Sprint races are shorter races than endurance events, so the focus is more on speed over a limited time. The team’s sensor replacement frequency can differ because the car is stressed differently.
A slick tire is a tire with a smooth surface meant for dry tracks. Because it’s used in different conditions than rain tires, the team’s sensor maintenance schedule can change.
Voltage is an electrical measurement that can indicate whether a sensor system is still healthy. In this segment, they monitor voltage (along with a percentage) to predict when the sensors need attention.
Race tires are special tires made for racing. They’re designed to give strong grip and handle heat, and the host says they get more complicated the higher you go in the sport.
Term
tire guys
“Tire guys” are the pit crew members who change tires during races. They’re the people doing the wheel and tire swap quickly and correctly.
They’re talking about the Chevrolet Corvette race car and how its wheel hardware works. The big point is that the Corvette’s wheel nuts are designed to stay put during tire changes, so they’re less likely to drop.
A wheel nut is the bolt/fastener that holds the wheel onto the car. In racing, it’s important not just for safety, but also because the crew needs to keep track of the correct nut for each wheel.
A circlip is a small metal ring that snaps into a groove to hold parts together. In this case, it helps keep the wheel nut from falling out when the wheel is being serviced.
Starting tire pressure is what the team puts in the tires before the car leaves the pits. As you drive, the tires heat up and pressure changes, so teams choose a starting value that will end up in the right range once the tires are hot.
Term
tread of the tire
The tread is the part of the tire that touches the road. Looking at how the tread looks after driving can show whether the tire is wearing normally or if something is wrong with pressure, temperature, or driving conditions.
Set rotation means the team doesn’t just use one tire set forever. They swap between different sets so each one is used when it’s at the right stage for grip and wear.
Slick tires have no tread grooves, which helps them grip more on dry pavement. They’re great in the right conditions, but they can wear out faster if the tire pressure and temperature aren’t managed well.
A scrub set is a tire set that’s been used briefly so the tire surface is conditioned. Teams use them when they want more predictable grip and temperature right away, depending on race conditions.
Term
HH platform
The HH platform sounds like the team’s shared communication and information system. Here it’s used so the tire specialist and engineer can quickly share what they’re seeing and what needs to change.
“Right rear” means the tire at the back on the right side of the car. Race teams watch each tire corner closely because if one corner isn’t behaving correctly, it can reveal a specific setup or pressure problem.
Term
HH
HH is a computer program the team uses to keep track of race timing and data. It helps record things like lap times and tire pressures so the rest of the team can see them quickly.
Timing and scoring is how the race measures lap times and keeps track of who’s where in the race. Teams rely on it to plan strategy and react to changes.
Term
run notes
Run notes are the documented observations and measurements teams record during a race weekend or practice runs. They often include details like lap times and tire pressures so engineers can correlate what happened on track with setup and tire behavior.
Term
rim number
A rim number is basically a label for a particular wheel. Teams track it so they know exactly which wheel setup was used when they record tire pressures and results.
A 12-hour race is a long race where the car has to last and keep performing for half a day. Ashley brings it up to show IMSA is built around endurance racing.
Le Mans is one of the biggest endurance races in the world. Ashley uses it as an example of how serious the event feels and why teams are motivated to get there.
The Aiken Award is a recognition in IMSA that’s connected to how teams behave and compete fairly. Ashley says it matters because it can lead to an invitation to Le Mans.
“Laguna” refers to Laguna Seca, a famous race track in California. Different tracks wear tires differently, so teams plan tire pressures and driving based on the track.
Scraping tires means taking off a thin strip from the tire so you can see how much rubber is actually getting used. It’s a way to check tire wear and understand what’s happening during the session.
A heat gun is a tool that blasts hot air. Racers use it to warm up a tire so the rubber acts the way they need, but they have to follow the event rules about how much warming is allowed.
Scraping the tire means shaving off a thin top layer of rubber. Teams do it to make the tire act more predictably so they can better judge how the car is working.
Term
pickup on it
“Pickup” refers to rubber transfer and surface changes that accumulate on a tire during running. Teams try to avoid or minimize pickup because it can alter grip and make it harder for drivers and engineers to interpret how the car setup is performing.
In racing, tire warmers are like blankets or covers that heat the tires before a run. They help the tires get sticky faster so the car has grip right away.
Racing tires come in different rubber “recipes.” Different compounds can grip more or last longer, and they affect how the tire looks after a run.
Concept
pro driver versus a bronze driver
Some racing series split drivers into skill levels. Here they’re saying a more experienced driver (“pro”) usually goes faster than a less experienced one (“bronze”), and that difference can show up in what the tires do.
“Set to set” means comparing one set of tires to the next set. Tire condition can change based on where the driver goes on track and how the car is driven. The speaker is saying you can learn a lot by looking at how tires change from one set to the next.
A “24 hour race” is a long endurance race where the cars keep running for an entire day. Teams have to manage tires, fuel, and driver swaps so the car stays competitive the whole time.
“Pit lane” is the area where race cars come in to get serviced during the race. Teams use it for things like tire changes and refueling, and doing it quickly matters a lot.
Paris is mentioned as a place the speaker expected to go for school. It’s part of the story of how racing ended up taking them somewhere different.
LIVE
And you weren't doing it because they were going to pay you $10,000 that week
and they were paying you nothing, you just would rather do that.
I still have my prom dress, never wore it.
My grandfather knew, he was like, oh yeah, race track.
But my grandmother, she probably wouldn't have understood it,
so I took fake prom photos and everything to show her.
And I was like, she went to prom, what are you talking about?
Because she was like so excited about it.
Had a great time.
I don't remember any of it, but not for reasons you think, right?
Yeah.
Okay, welcome to It's Not The Car.
This is a show about racing and everything that makes racing great.
I'm Sam, I'm a club racer who happens to be a former motorsport journalist and a writer.
My co-hosts on this show each make their living in racing.
My friend Ross Bentley is a performance coach and a former IndyCar driver.
And my friend Jeff Brown is a champion race engineer and strategist who's
currently working for a Corvette GTD team in IMSA.
Jeff's team is called 13 Autosport.
They run a Z06 in IMSA's GTD AM class in the quote unquote amateur side of GTD.
Now, we talk about these guys a bit here because, well, because Jeff's on the show
and interesting things happen to the people on his team.
We like those people and they're all great folks, but just as important,
they're a lens into what the sport is like for most of the people who work at it.
How things run when you're not exactly at the podium every weekend,
but you're still fighting and you still have your own wins and losses and can achieve some
pretty cool things. For this episode, we sat down with 13's tire specialist,
a woman named Ashley Bailey. She lives in Toronto, she's 25 years old,
and she's been with 13 with the team running the full IMSA calendar for the last five years.
Ashley didn't go to school to be an engineer. She was actually trained as a pastry chef.
And until last fall, that was still how she spent her weekdays.
She worked full-time as a professional baker making and decorating cakes.
On the weekends, she'd hop off to places like Sebring or Mid-Ohio or Le Mans working all.
When we taped this show just a few weeks ago, Ashley had just come back from Le Mans,
but the longest time she had thought baking would take her to France,
but then, you know, race cars got her there instead.
As you might expect, the story of how that happened is pretty great.
And it's also proof that just about anyone can get into pro racing if they want it badly enough.
So we talked about that. And as usual, a whole lot else.
As always, we have to thank everyone who believes in the show and who hopes to make it possible.
Top of the list, that means everybody who helps keep us going through the It's Not the Car Patreon.
That also means our friends at BFGoodrich, the tire company. They believe in the show,
they believe in grassroots motorsport, and they actually make a really good tire,
a really good product, especially their UHP line this year. It's pretty good stuff.
Check it out if you get a chance. We'd appreciate it. We love doing this show,
but it couldn't happen without Patreon and it couldn't happen without BFG,
and we're really grateful for all of your support.
Okay, this is a fun one, so let's get to it.
Okay, Ashley, thanks for being here. Both of you, you and Jeff, just got back from Le Mans
minutes ago, right? When did that happen?
Yeah, we got back. We flew in on Monday, an extra long day with the time change and everything.
We must have been drafting Ashley's plane because I got home about the same time in North Carolina.
I don't know about you, Ashley, but for me, it's better going back home because you kind of
land in the afternoon and it seems like you can get to bed at the right time,
but I was still pretty tired because it was six hours. My clock was six hours ahead.
Yeah, it was easier in a way coming back home, but it was up till 11 p.m. Monday night,
and then I had hockey last night till 11 and not on schedule yet. It's a little jet-legged.
So I know how Le Mans went. I don't want to ask how Le Mans went. I know you guys might not want
to talk about it, but I kind of also want to ask how was it?
The first 12 days were great. All on schedule. Good to go.
No, it wasn't good. It's never a good weekend when you qualify last and finish last.
To put it bluntly, that's what happened to us.
Although we did qualify last and then we won Daytona.
I don't know if you thought about this, Ashley. I'm sure you did.
When we qualified last at Le Mans, I'm like, perfect. This has worked before in 24 hours.
I was thinking the same thing.
And won this before. Not quite.
I know it has to have been just the roller coaster on a bunch of different levels,
but the one thing I love about your team is that everybody on it,
every time I've run into anybody there, everybody's just deeply chill and friendly and
open and positive in a way that you don't always see in a paddock.
How did you get into this whole world?
Well, I definitely didn't expect it. If you were to ask like 12-year-old Ashley,
oh yeah, what are you going to be in the future?
Racing and going to Paris would not have been on that checklist, that's for sure.
But the right doors just seemed to open at the right times and just jump into opportunities.
It was a long, long, weird journey. Definitely a unique one to get there, but yeah.
Did you grow up around cars? Do you have any background in racing or come into it gold?
Yeah. So my dad and my grandfather actually had their own auto shop here before I was born until
2014 when my grandfather retired. So I was always like around cars and NASCAR was always on the TV.
Saturday was NASCAR day. And I grew up a fan of the sport and everything.
Even now, I still need my fiance go to NASCAR races and local tracks.
Anything that has wheels, dirt racing, dirt ovals, asphalt ovals, drag strips,
anything with an engine, anything with wheels.
13 autosport. The team is based in Ontario outside of Toronto,
but did you grow up in Ontario? Yeah, I grew up just outside of Toronto,
so not too far from the local airport in the main hub of everything.
The family shop, what kind of stuff went through it? Anything interesting or just
kind of ordinary work-a-day service stuff? It's just like a normal auto shop,
tires, oil change, that kind of thing. As a kid growing in the shop, it was nothing special or
nothing cool. But now looking back, it has that like vintage-ness to it. They had like the pit
that went under the car. No fancy toys. It was just simple. My dad and my grandfather running it,
no employees, just the two of them. So when did you start with the team?
And that would have been AWA, right? Before the name change. When did you start?
With AWA, my first race was Daytona of 2022 when they moved from Pilot Challenge to the
WeatherTech series and they got those two LMP3 cars. That was my first race with them.
How did you go from Ashley hanging out doing things and living a normal life to Ashley in a
race shop? Well, back in 2017, so I was still in high school and stuff. I was going to Moseport for
the races and IMSA came to Moseport and there was a team there that was sponsored by one of our
local dealerships. I like Ramota Sports actually, so they were in IMSA season. They won Daytona that
year and my brother worked for the dealership just washing cars and I was like, hey, cool.
Local driver, whatever. I love baking at the time. So I made the team a cake.
That's how that started. I hand drew like their Daytona winning car and put it on a cake.
There's trend of flags all around it and then ended up being really good friends with them.
They were very like family knit team. Everybody was super nice. A smaller team like 13. So
just started lending a hand with them, just cleaning wheels. I started there and then they
moved to SRO and I kind of followed them around. Hard card. Here you go. Help us out. They were
running SRO and they're racing Road America in June and Michael Christensen was one of our drivers
and he had just raced the pink pig. I was like, whoa, that's a pretty cool car with like all the
writing on and everything. I'm going to make cake. So I made a 3D cake of their car and they're
running Road America. I was going to send it with my dad because he was going to go help them out
and it was my prom that weekend. It's like, okay, I'll send the cake with them. And I was like,
no, I'm not going to spend the night in a fancy dress and prom for one night. I'm going to go
to the racetrack for a weekend. So I ended up going to Road America that weekend with this pink
pig cake in the bathtub of my trailer with ice all around it. And we won that weekend. And that
first win was such a feeling, just winning with a team that was so family knit. That was my
introduction kind of interracing, just being that free helping hand, grasping everything I could,
learning everything I could. And I have never done anything cool enough that somebody just
made me a cake. Did they know you were coming with a cake or did you just show up with a
cake and be like, here, I have cake. Now eat cake. Cake is the way to people's hearts. So
I didn't expect it to lead to where it was. We have this rule in our house where we just
can't have cake in the house because if we have cake in the house, my wife and I are just like,
well, I don't know. I mean, it's like 10 in the morning, we should eat some cake. And it's like
two in the afternoon, we should eat some cake. And then it's like midnight, we should eat some cake.
And then a day and a half has gone by and we both have eaten, I don't know, a bucket's worth of cake
and it's a terrible idea. And you don't want to go bad if you don't eat it right away.
So you just went full time at 13. But there's an awful lot that happened into between
there, you know, cake number one and cake number two. And what happened last week at Le Mans.
But I'm curious, what did you think of SRO? What was that whole world like kind of opening the
door into that experience? SRO was definitely different. It was like more sprint rate, the two
races in a weekend, but it opened up a lot of tracks. Like we only really drove to tracks,
the local, the Glenn, most for Road America, VIR. And then I got to go to Kota and Sonoma.
So that really opened the door like, whoa, look at all these race tracks. And
it was a different competition. But it was, it was cool to see how Pirelli worked there and
their tire guys worked, especially now knowing IMSA. So it was, it was just a good learning
experience overall, just opening up and seeing what's out there. I was just going to ask Ashley,
so how did you, I should know this, but I don't, how did you end up doing tires? I get the first
thing, okay, here's the new person. We're going to give you the nastiest, dirtiest job. You're
going to clean the wheels and go run tires back and forth. But you are now, you know, we'll talk
about later what a tire specialist does. And I think most people have a misconception of what
that is. It is not just put air in and check the pressures and clean the wheels. It's one of the
most important engineering jobs on the team. But how did you learn that? Because you didn't,
you know, there's no classes. You don't go to school for it. You've learned that on the fly.
I was just, there was a main tire guy there. So he was the one that was purging the wheels and
setting them. And I was just cleaning them, making them look all pretty and detailed because
didn't go to school for engineering or anything racing related. I went to school to be a pastry
chef. I was just happy to be at the racetrack. I wasn't, wasn't technically working for them. I
was just that helping hand to pass it. Like when I got to be the one holding it on the wall for
the tire changer during a pit stop or like the hose wrangler, it was like, oh, I'm part of it,
which was good. I didn't want the responsibility at that point. I was just kind of absorbing
everything. I didn't realize how much I was paying attention to like what their process was and what
they were doing, but it definitely helped me when I joined 13 Autosport. So, so how long were you
at the legra and when did that lead to 13? Yeah, so 2018, 19, I would help them out for a couple
races. And then I was working full time as well. So it was just kind of splitting both and then
COVID hit. So I had a couple years off 2020, 2022. And then that's when I started with,
because they went from that one car in Michelin pilot challenge to having the two P three cars.
So I'm a local and they knew the car chief for Allegra and kind of word got around like, hey,
Ashley and her dad, they're, they should help you out. And this and that. And my dad finished
off the pilot season with a WA in 2021. And then he ended up being the mechanic for our second car
in 2022 for the P three. Well, take him off tires. Who's looking for somebody now? Oh,
Ashley can do that. I was like, at first it was like, oh, yeah, Ashley will help somebody do that.
And then I got to Daytona and I was like, whoa, guess I'm sinking or I'm swimming. I gotta figure
this out. I'm doing both cars. Both cars at Daytona. Yeah, it was the weather tech car. And then
the P three car was doing VP challenge. So they weren't on track at the same time,
which I would have preferred that because at least then you have, you have the off track,
but they were back to back. So like, if I didn't get stuff done at night or first thing in the
morning, I was like, I probably looked like a chicken with my head cut off around that paddock
just running back and forth, grabbing the one rack for the one car and then bringing it back
and grabbing the other rack for the other car and dropping off at Michelin. And that was quite the
first race. That's for sure. That first weekend when one car was testing and one car was racing,
it was like a, I never done doing tires like fully by myself, like just kind of helping somebody.
It was like, okay, well, guess I better learn fast. Wow, we're just going to give her first job,
the hardest one there ever is. And she's going to have to figure that out. I'm going to have to
give Andrew a hard time on that. That was not cool. So the thing I love about talking to people
who moonlight as crew, even when they're doing it full time is always what that light switch
moment is like, where, you know, on the weekend, you're at the racetrack and a propatic doing deeply
serious, deeply intense things. And then that Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, whenever it is,
if you're not full time at the shop and you're back in your regular life, it must have been really
surreal going out of that landscape into a completely, a totally non-adjacent career,
like baking. Did you ever find yourself standing at a counter like on a Monday or Tuesday and just,
I don't know, icing something and going, what is my life? How does this work?
You know, I never, I never realized like how different they were until people started mentioning
it. Like, what did you do this weekend? And then it's like, oh, I was in California,
I was in Florida. And like, the first thing would be like, oh my God, that's so nice. You're on the
beach, this and that. And it was like, I didn't see the beach once. It was very dirty and hot and
loud. Yeah. I was at the track till when the sun rose and when the sun set. And then they like,
once they started understanding that, it was like, okay, yeah, I guess what I do is pretty
different like night and day kind of thing. But all the girls that I worked with at the
bakery, they were all super supportive and knew nothing about racing. Most of them,
sometimes their boyfriends would be like F1 fans or something. But they just took such an interest
in it and was like, oh yeah, go, go, like leave on a, because like, I'm hanging them high and dry
for like Thursday to Monday, making them pick up some of the slack. And it's like, oh yeah,
go, go, go chase this dream, go have fun, go find out what's out there, which is really nice and
supportive. But yeah, definitely two different worlds, but they are, they're both very detail
oriented. Like for the most part, I worked at a cookie shop that was just decorating like, sure
cookies, the fancy wedding cookies that you're making somebody's day special, which there's
a lot of pressure, right? Sometimes it's like the cake or the cookies is the do or die of that,
that event, which tires, same thing is kind of the do or die of that event. If you don't have
tires, you're not racing. So when you were in that, making that switch, did you ever,
did you have any, any interest or inclination in going full time? Or did you have any idea it
might turn into something else that you might be able to turn it into a career?
No, not at all. It was definitely something that was like, the fun side job wasn't at the bakery
full time. So it still kept that like fun to do. And then I wasn't racing full time. So that was
still fun. It was a good, good balance between the two. And I still would go to the racetrack
even on my off weekends, just watch or, which became weird to just watch and not work. Like,
you still had this like, I just, just want to get in there. But yeah, I never, never thought I would
go full time until September when I just had a chat with our team owner at the time. And he was
talking about the next season and that they were looking for somebody. And then we kind of both
looked at it because he wasn't, he was talking to me about who we like, who we could hire and
this and that. And then like, we kind of both looked at each other like, do you want to have
that? Like, do you want, oh, you're like, you're local, you're, you're right here. I was like,
oh, I'm, I'm still like a pastry chef though. I'm not no mechanic. Like I work on my fun cars in
the driveway where I can hit it with a hammer or do what I want, cut what I want kind of thing,
learn and I was like, work on this million dollar race car. I don't know.
It's, it's amazing to me, Jeff, I know you've met a lot of people over the years who
so much of a propatic is people who planned to be there from being a zygote, right? Day one,
every ounce of their school and career structure was built around getting into pro racing.
But honestly, I love talking to the people who end up in it and love it, but who never,
never planned it because their, their stories and their arcs are always more interesting. I mean,
Ashley, what, what did it feel like your first day you showed up full time at AWA?
The first day where you're not a bakery, that this is what you do.
It was a weird feeling. Like it felt familiar because it's like, I work with those guys
10 weeks out of the year and plus testing. I see them more than I see my family sometimes.
As the weeks went on, I was like, whoa, I'm still here. So still driving, driving a different way,
not driving to the bakery, shop. It wasn't neat feeling though, to just
understand more of how the team worked, the crew worked, the car, the cool feeling like, whoa,
I'm actually, I'm actually doing that. That's to me, that different path you were talking about,
Sam, it was Ashley, she, the passion for wanting to do it is, was there, okay, I'm going to go,
it's prom week. Yeah, no, I'm going to Sonoma and doing tires instead. I'm blowing off my prom for
that. It's like, all right, that person really wants to do this. And you weren't doing it because
they were going to pay you $10,000 that weekend. They were paying you nothing. You just would
rather do that. Got a hard car and that was, that was it. I still have my prom dress, never wore it.
Even like my grandmother was, my grandfather knew he, he was like, oh yeah, race track,
but my grandmother, she probably wouldn't have understood it. So I took fake prom photos and
everything to show her. And it's like, Ashley went to prom. Yeah, she went to prom. What are you
talking about? Because she was like, so excited about it. Had a great time. I don't remember any
of it, but not for reasons you think, right? I skipped my graduation. None of the girls would
go out with me at prom. So I probably couldn't have gone anyway, but there's a similar kind of
high school graduation. I was like, yeah, no, I'm going racing. Definitely the right choice.
So tire specialist, right? Jeff, you alluded to this earlier, but the notion that, again,
so much of motorsport looks very simple and is not. Walk me through everything you do on a weekend
and what you're responsible for and how that works. Yeah. So tire wise, I'm responsible for like
the rims, all the tires, working with the engineer and the car chief. You're in like a middle ground
because you need to talk to the car chief about what he wants for tech or make sure he rolls out
to the grid on the right tires. But then you also have to talk to Charlie or engineer like,
what do you want? Do you want rains? Is it going to rain? Is it not going to rain? How many tires
do you want to use this session? So a lot of communication between the team to start off with,
just to get yourself prepped for the next couple of days, lay your plan out what you want to do.
But yeah, I pick up my Michelin racks at Michelin. They travel with six of our sets.
So I go pick those up and make sure we have everything and take a lot of data from the
tires, see when they've shipped out, make sure they're all kind of relevant in dates.
And then I get working on taping the weights, leaving the tires, purging them, which is when
you put nitrogen into the tire a couple of times and out just to get the moisture because air has
a lot of moisture in it, which then when the tire warms up, not good. That's kind of like the first
day of work is just kind of getting everything organized and ready. And let me add a little
bit because Ashley, that seems normal to her. What a lot of people don't understand,
most people change their tires every, I don't know how long a set of tires go,
30,000 miles. And it's like, she's dealing with, at Le Mans last weekend, for just the race,
she had 15 sets to deal with. Every one of those sets has to be purged, like she said,
and that's a long process. You got to get all that, the air with the moisture out of it,
get the nitrogen in it, get the pressure set correctly. Inside the, every wheel is a very
tricky specialized sensor, tire pressure sensor, and it also measures temperature of the air inside,
of the nitrogen inside the tire. And that is wireless. So she's got a little gauge that she
can check each one of those sensors, make sure it's working. And it's critical that those are all
perfectly taken care of, perfectly logged in. And she has to do all that because if one of those
sensors doesn't work, there's tire pressure rules, minimum tire pressure rules that we have to abide
by. And the sanctioning bodies look at those, that data is sent from that sensor back to the
sanctioning body live, all the cars running around. And if that sensor stops reading, we can get a
penalty, a drive-through penalty, or a penalty just to change that tire. So you have to make an
unscheduled pit stop if her stuff doesn't work. I think I changed like 19 at Le Mans throughout
the event. 19 bad sensors, yeah. So you got to make sure you stay on top of them. As they come low,
I tend to rotate them out so that you don't end up on a race weekend where you have to change
all of them or half of them. We did that one year where we were just, I think it was the first
year with the Corvette. We came to Indy. And there was a problem with all the sensors, had some
malfunction in them, and we had to change everything. But we didn't find out till the night before the
race. And that was an endurance race. There was a lot of sensors change. And Jackson, the Michelin
tire guys, they had left, they were gone. We had to do that. The Pratt cars both had to do that.
So that was, I had all the guys on it. Like, I actually called the Michelin guys up and I was
like, Hey, I know you're at dinner right now, but could you come into the track? I have a lot of
sensors to change. And I got my, some of the crew guys came and helped and started balancing
tires with us. And we got it all done in like an hour. I remember when you called them back in,
and it's like, that tire guys are not, there wouldn't be enthusiastic. I knew that, but you got
them to come in because these sensors we're talking about, they're inside the wheel. So to get to it,
you have to take the tire off the wheel, change the sensor, put the tire back on the wheel again.
So it's not like you just unscrew it from the outside of the wheel or something.
And once you do that, you let air into the tire and then you got to start the purging process
all over again. And we only ordered like so many nice gym bottles too. So it's got,
you've got to make sure you have everything organized. And that was one of the worst days
at the racetrack. That's Baptiste, one of our data engineers, he was not happy that we had to
change them all. He was like, oh my God. I was like, don't worry, I'll get the guy,
I'll figure it out. Just go back on your laptop and I'll make sure all the sensors are back in
and working. It was really good that we got that done that night. Cause then race morning,
all the two factory cars were there doing the same thing. And they have all the pilot tires
to deal like those tire guys are, they were busy that day. That's for sure. But
How often do those things die? Every couple of races, it depends on the endurance race
and sprint races. Like if you cycle them properly, you'll change maybe a set every,
every other race or something. It depends on if they're in a rain tire or if they're in a slick
tire, I try to rotate it because the rain tires we normally don't use as much because most of our
races knock on wood or pretty dry. So those sensors last a long time, but yeah, you look at
the percentage and then the voltage and we've kind of developed a system that if it's under
this number for percentage or under this voltage, we're going to change it just to be safe, not run
them out and get a penalty. So we do change them pretty early. We don't like to run too close to
that line, especially when you're running the 24 hours, because you don't want to be changing
something in the middle of the night. Hi, it's Sam. A couple of quick things here and I'll let
you get back to the show. So we make it's not the car because we love doing it. Thankfully,
other people love it too because Ross and Jeff and I don't make a profit on the show.
We just keep it going through help from everybody who listens or watches on YouTube. Now part of
the way we do that is something called Patreon. You go there and for a few bucks a month, you get
neat perks like bonus episodes, discounts on the merch we sell and some free speed secrets training
from Ross. If any of that sounds good, you can join at patreon.com forward slash not the car.
Other way we keep this show going is new this year. It's through support from our friends at
BFGoodrich, the tire company. BFGoodrich likes what we do here. They believe in grassroots
enthusiasm and they want it to support the show, which is great because Ross and Jeff and I actually
really do like BFG tires. We own BFG tires and we even occasionally get to run races on their tires
in amateur and duro series like Champ Car. We've got some fun stuff planned with them and for the
show this year. If you get a chance, give BFGoodrich some love. They're good folks and their help
makes all of this possible. Okay, back to the show. Tires are especially race tires are one of
those things that the more you know about them as you move up in the industry, the less you're
encouraged to talk about them, which is a shame because they're complex as hell and really interesting
and they get more and more interesting every year. I'm curious what your experience was like
with the learning curve. What did you think it was going to be like when you got into it? And then
what was it like kind of having your eyes opened, seeing how deep that rabbit hole goes with the
thing you're focused on and what your job is? So going into it, you don't realize how much is a
part of it. You say people if you've never been racing, it's like, oh yeah, it's just tires. They're
round, they're black, they go in the car. But there is a lot more to it and it was definitely eye
opening, seeing just the process. And when you join a team, you have all the documents and stuff
from whoever was previous there and how they did that. So you kind of use what they did,
and then you learn to like develop it in your own way by what works for you or what you learn.
And I made a lot of great friends in the paddock too, a lot of tire guys or the Michelin guys are
great. The more friends you have and everything, the more you learn, you're willing to help each
other like just building those relationships. Because like if you're in a pickle or they're
in a pickle, just you're trying to help each other out, right? You're all there for the same reason.
Just learning from people and guys that have been there for as old as I am, 25. There's a lot
to learn out there and the sport's always changing, always evolving. There is a lot of stuff that goes
into all the tires and the rims and everything, especially when we change from the P3 car to the
Corvette. There were some differences in how you prep things, just little things you do and add to
your lists, your little checklist seems to keep getting longer and longer. But yeah, the P3 car
didn't have captured nuts. They were just, the wheel nut was just, you had four of them, when
the guys changed tires, it stuck to their gun and it went on with the next set. The Corvette has
captured wheel nuts, so it's got a circlip on it. So each rim has a wheel nut. So just adding that to
the list of things to check, make sure the clips good, replace it when necessary. That way if
Nico or Hanger goes to go hang, the nut doesn't pop out and go down pit lane for a ride.
The P3 nuts, actually, they were, they came blue and red for left and right. The Corvette,
they're all bronze. And I was like, oh boy, my guys, sometimes I feel like one of our guys,
he doesn't know his left from his right. So I was like, oh my, this is going to be bad.
Because every wheel, oh, like on the sidewall, I write left rear, right rear,
like, okay, I started painting the nuts now, paint right for red, blue for left,
there's a mark for the rears on the rim. I was like, as much as I could put on this wheel,
so that the guys can, don't have to second guess it, can just be like, ah, yeah, right rear,
make their job a little easier. And that's the thing that's cool about, I get to see how that
communication works. So the, the tire specialist works super, super close with the race engineer,
because the race engineer has certain tire pressures they want in certain conditions,
different starting pressures when it's nighttime, because it's not going to be as warm. So it's not
going to build as much pressure, different tire starting pressures for different drivers, because
each driver drives the car a little bit different. Some drive it a little harder, build more pressure,
some not as much build less. So Ashley's got to work with Charlie on what the next set is pressures
need to be before they go on. So she's got these stacked up. Then when a set comes off, you know,
I'm sitting there next to Charlie and I'll see Charlie's phone light up very shortly after a pit
stop. And Ashley's taken pictures of the tread of the tire. So Charlie can look at it from where
characteristics or if there's a problem with the tire that she doesn't like, she'll send that picture
and note it to Charlie. So the same kind of thing, a lot of people know about the data engineer,
the junior engineer working with the race engineer. The tire specialist is plugged into
that engineer. It's an engineering job. It really is because of all these, the critical
nature of the pressures, the temperatures, the wear, the set rotation, she'll have scrub sets,
she'll have slick sets. So sometimes you want to run a scrub tire based on certain conditions. So
she's got to have those in order to be ready to go when the engineer. And I know Ashley, you're
thinking about what possible curveball could Charlie throw me that I need to be ready for.
You seem to be always ready, which is really cool to see.
Yeah. And I feel like Charlie and I, we've developed a good system. It took a little bit
to build what works. I hear some tire guys talk and with their engineers, like, oh,
I'm waiting on pressure still. I'm still waiting on pressures. And Charlie and I,
don't even have to talk to them. We're just between our messages and our HH platform,
both very transparent with each other. So if I see something I don't like, as I mentioned it,
and if he sees something like, oh, the right rear is not coming up, it's like,
he doesn't hide it. I remember we had one engineer a while ago and it was like,
I would sit there in the office with my, my little book, like, okay, we're going on track,
I got a role in like 10 minutes. I need those pressures. I just thought about the engineering
side of it. So at Le Mans, for instance, it's a whole different setup of the engineering
office and how we work. So we're in this back of the garage, basically. And there's Baptiste and
Charlie and Andrew and I lined up kind of doing our thing like we do in the normal IMSA scoring
stand. But because it was all on one level, Ashley has her computer, had it right next to mine,
and you're like, a tire person needs a computer, but she's got to log all the pressures in,
all the laps, keep track of that. And that computer, she mentioned HH, it's a program we use for
two things, timing and scoring, but also it manages all of our data, all of the run notes,
the lap times, the tire pressures. So she's logging all of that in so that Charlie can see
that on his screen immediately because it's all sent to the cloud. So he can grab it all.
You know, for people, I mean, it's how you got into the sport, actually, but for people who want
to get into it, I've told people this, I said, you should try to be a, you know, get into the sport
and learn tires. And they're like, oh, I want to be engineer. I said, perfect, learn tires,
because it is so critical. Yeah. And a lot of teams do it differently. Like when I first started
with A-Boy, it was at a piece of paper with the pressures from the engineer and I wrote them down
and then I would have a piece of paper that was done up with what rim number that was all hand
written and everything. But then the engineer is super busy on a race weekend and you're trying,
it's like a lineup of who needs to talk to him, right? So I would sit there with my paper like,
oh, here you go. And is that okay? Is it not okay? And it was just, it was just a lot going on.
Some teams still like a lot of guys just have the paper and give it to their tire guy and
they set the pressures and it's done with, but I'm a very information person. The more information I
can provide to the engineers, I feel like the better. So yeah, then I got a laptop and once I
got a laptop and not a techie person, but once I got HH figured out, I feel like things started
running nice and smooth and nothing gets missed. You're not sitting there trying to, sometimes in
a paddock, it's especially when we're at Indy and our trailers all the way at the other end of the
lane, trying to find each other to try to just chat about something is hard. So the fact that we
both can just open up our laptop and look at it, provide each other the information we need, it's
been good. So across the industry from paddocks to series, different series to different teams,
these industries all end up being their own little cultures where things are done
for a long time in certain ways. In some cases, that's good. In some cases, that's awful. And
the worst case can be dealing with baked in prejudice in a sport where results and how you
do your job should be the only thing that matter. What did you expect coming into it with your
background and what you knew and growing up around the shop? And how has that experience
matched that or been different? Yeah, so definitely, like if you wrote a paper on Just Me and like,
oh yeah, she's female, short, pastry artist, you wouldn't think she's at a racetrack and
especially such a male dominated sport, but just, I don't know, I feel like any position
whether male or female in racing, it's like everybody kind of has to earn their way. It's
a different kind of work. It's not like you go to school and you can come into this. You got to
work hard for where you go and what you have and make a name for yourself. It's not a diploma that
you can just go around the product like, oh, hey, I have this diploma and I can do this and that
get the proof that you can do it. And it's a different type of work too. It's not a nine to
five, it's like a seven to midnight kind of job sometimes. And it takes tough skin to do that and
takes the right people and the right group together as well to do that. So
expectations, I never really thought I would be in racing. So I don't know if I really had any
expectations. Cars was just kind of fun. And I go carded a little before, so I had fun like
doing little setups and the tire pressure and all that. So it was just, it was all just a lot
of fun. And it's how I kind of walked into it was just fun. Didn't really have any high expectations
for anything or how it would be when I went to the racetrack to just watch. I never really focused
on the pit guys or what they were doing, what their job was. I was focused on the cars that
were turning left and going fast, that kind of thing. To that end too, how is IMSA's culture
different from what you saw of SRO? And I know at this point you have a lot more seat time in IMSA
than in the former, but what did you notice kind of from the inside of the paddock in terms of
how the two series feel, how they operate, the stuff that most spectators never see?
Yeah. So SRO, I was very new and just helping. So I wasn't really in charge of anything. They're
talking to like anybody official wise, but it was a lot more relaxed, I would say. I don't know,
it was just looking back on it felt more relaxed because I didn't have any pressure on me except
for shining up the rims. But and then IMSA is very like, we're the main chauffeur pretty much
every race except for Long Beach. You feel like the big dog in the paddock, like we run 24 hour
race and 12 hour race. And I don't know, the paddock is a big family too. You make friends and
everybody waves and smiles. And everybody's kind of there for each other, whether it's something on
the car or tires or something. If you forget something at the shop, a tool, every team is
willing to help out or if a team needs an engine horse, it's like, oh, yeah, we have one here.
I come by our trailer and we all want to win. And I think most teams don't want to win because
somebody didn't bring their engine horse or didn't bring this tool or we all want to win
fair and square. I don't know what like NASCAR or any of the other series or F1, they might be a
little more different. But for us, IMSA is, I don't know, it's just a big family. Even official
wise, like, you joke with them, you laugh with them or Le Mans feel like you can't really joke
with the officials as much like we have one really nice. It's a little more more strict. I don't know
if it's a language barrier, but it seems like a word your words, right? No laughing. We had done
that that episode with Andrew and we talked about the fire that we had at Daytona this year. And
that's what Ashley's just saying is a good example of that the number of people that,
you know, direct competitors that we're racing against to win the Aiken award to get the invite
to Le Mans are like, how can we help? What do you need? You know, some people said, I got a
couple of mechanics, they can stay with you all night and help clean this thing up. And we're
like, they should be sleeping so that are good for their own team, but they were willing to help
and wanting to help. And it works both ways. DXDT, our Corvette team, had a fire on the way to
Laguna and their transporter with their race car in it, essentially burned to the ground.
And we offered, how can we help? You know, we want to help them. I really want to beat DXDT,
but I don't want to beat them because their car burned down. I want to beat them because we,
our drivers were faster, our car was better set up. We did better strategy. Our tire pressures
were more accurate than theirs. I think Ashley's right. And she, you mentioned Ashley, the other
tire people on the other teams, to me, that's a kind of a close knit, you know, more about it than
me, but the tire people work together. They all understand everybody's job, what they're going
through, how difficult it is, are willing to help. And there's kind of that camaraderie between that
group and the number of people that have said to me, tire guys that I've worked with in the past
are like, man, Ashley is so good. She is really good. Your reputation in the sport amongst the
people that do what you do is very high. And it's because of your attitude and the way you do things.
Thank you. Yeah. All the tire guys that were, we are like very close to it. And if anybody ever
needs something, it's like you go to each other and, you know, they're always willing to help.
And even like scraping tires, seen as one of the worst things to do, I scrape a lot of tires and
multiple guys that are babysitters, like, I have a scraper. You want me to come help scrape? And it's
like, it's nice to have people surrounding you that are willing to help you. And everybody just
wants to look out for each other. Explain that because most track day people who are track day
driving or whatever aren't going to scrape their tires. Explain why and what that involves and
tire pickup and all of that. Because it's another aspect that you have to deal with on a session
by session basis. Yeah. So there's two reasons to scrape tires. One is there's some tread depth
marks in the tire when it's made. So you scrape a little section and then you can get a better
reading on how much tire you actually wore. So that's the easy one is just like a one inch strip
all the way across. And the other one is you scrape the whole tire. So you take all the pickup off
and everything. It's like a 30 minute process per tire of a hot heat gun smoking in your face,
scraping the tire. So you scrape that to just give the driver a better tire to either if we're
going from practice one to practice two, I'll normally scrape a set, whatever set we end on,
we're normally start on for the next practice. So I'll scrape those tires to give Matt a better
chance at having a read on the car. That way he doesn't have pickup on it or give Ori a little
bit more confidence in the tire because there's no pickup on it. It's like it's an Ashley sticker
as Keith calls it. It looks like a sticker. Yeah, it looks like a sticker tire basically.
And then also when we had to, when we were qualifying and we had to start on the qualifying
set, I would scrape those because just the start of the race, you want the best tire you can have.
So Michelin, we don't have a lot like unlimited tires per race. They give you a set amount that
you're allowed to use. So you try to use up your practice sets quite a bit and just scraping it
gives the engineer and the drivers a better opportunity to test out the car without the
factor of having to pick up on it that can throw them off. And there's rules about scraping tires,
right? You can explain it, but they're worried that you use the heat gun. And maybe you just
like do it for an hour and heat that tire up because there's no tire warmers allowed at Le Mans.
Yeah. So at Le Mans, you can scrape that little one inch section to get your measurements, but
that's all you can scrape unless it's over two hours before a session. So once two hours before
a session hits, your heat gun better be away and stop scraping because they don't want you
basically heating the tire up. So like one of our sessions, we had two hours and 45 minutes.
So I had 45 minutes from when the car came in and get the tires off and everything
to scrape as much as I could. So I ended up scraping a full front and then just the inside
of the other front. And then I was like, oh, I scraped till 7.59. It was our 10 o'clock night
session. And like the officials, they can walk through your garage and the back whenever they
want. And so I go, I'll do 7.59. I'll give myself a minute to like put the heat gun away from the
tires. No questions asked. Do you think anybody checked that? Did you ever see them walk through
and? I did see an official live time walking through the garage like at 8.20 maybe. I don't
know what he was looking for, but. Okay, that's good. But maybe. And all the other tire guys,
they, I don't think they were really scraping much. I don't think the guys beside us ever scraped a
tire. But I get the rule because like in SRO, we did have tire warmers at one point where you
have the blanket around it and you're heating the tire. And those, I love IMSA for no tire warming
because those blankets. What a pain, right? How are they a pain? How do they make your life harder?
So you still have your racks that the tires go on and then there's two heating options. You could
have the oven where it's a big, big sheet that goes over your tire rack and there's a heater in
there and it heats it. Or we had like a blanket basically that you roll the tire over and it
velcros and then there's two pieces on either side that keep it insulated and there's a wire
in each one. So you can set each tire individually. And it's just, just an extra step of the stuff to
figure out and carry around and wrap. And then for IMSA, if we have a track with a short lap,
it's like I have our next set of tires on the wall ready to go. In case we're coming out of the last
corner and there's a puncture and we have to dive in the pits, you always want to have a set ready,
something to go on the car that way you're not running around. But with these tire warmers,
if they're wrapped, they're not as accessible. You can't just put them on the wall and have them
ready because you want them unwrapped. Kind of like how you see F1, how they wait till the last
second and then unwrap it. So I just like that IMSA is simple on that. You can keep your tires
on the wall, no wrapping, no heating. So I know a lot of that stuff kind of comes and goes,
with the exception of scraping them. You're not staring at them for long periods of time and
kind of diving into them. But the way IMSA uses tires and the compounds they use and how consistent
the cars are, is it possible to look at a set that came off, say a mat run versus an Ori run and go,
yeah, that's definitely that guy. That's definitely the other guy. They were definitely driving like
X, Y or Z, right? What do you end up seeing, if anything, given how much time you have?
Yeah, for sure. It's like a pro driver versus a bronze driver. The more speed you have,
the cleaner your tires will be basically. So a lot of the pro guys, they'll come off the track
and they've got a lot less pickup on it. They're online more because they're faster. And then you
can tell if a driver goes offline. The second they go offline, they get that pickup and sometimes
it's hard to get off. So you can tell that. At Le Mans, we had one set that Matt was coming in and
I could tell, I was like, ah, you were in the gravel, weren't you? There was rocks on all four
tires. I didn't even have to hear Jeff say it on the radio. I was like, ah, yep. I know where you
were. So the tires do tell a little bit of a story and you can definitely tell set to set.
There's been so much, so much has happened in a relatively short period of time. You guys,
one Daytona in 2025, a team that was only in its second year in that type and level of production
cars. And then you finished 10th at Le Mans last year, your first year there. I'm sure you have a
laundry list of moments in your head that billion years from now when you're sitting on your death
bed, somebody looks at you and goes, well, what do you remember? And it all cycles through. But
I'm curious, what experiences stand out in memory so far? What's the, the technicolor stuff that
you'll, you'll never forget? Definitely Daytona the first year I was with them with the P3 cars.
That was the, once the weekend was over and I came home and I was talking to my friends or the
girls at the bakery, you kind of reflect on it. It's like, I actually did that. Like when you're
in it, it's like your full force head in and it's, you're busy. And once you get to talk to people,
it's like you realize how cool your job is and how many people would love to be where you are.
So that first year was definitely like quite the year, just learning and everything and just
having other teams come up to me, other tire guys or other owners, like being like,
whoa, like you're amazing. You're like the hardest worker in the paddock and this and that. And to
me, I was just, just a girl trying to get her job done. Like there was nothing special to that.
But at the end of the year, the amount of compliments I got that year of just how hard
working I was and everything that was, that was quite a, quite a good year. Yeah. I felt, felt
really good. Felt noticed. And although I do like my little corner, my little tire town, as we call
it. I like to just, just hide in there. I'd rather not be in the spotlight and everything.
And last year, Daytona, the win, that was, that was definitely a big one. That was fun to experience
with the team and everything. My fiance, actually, that was his first race he flew out to. And I was
like, you chose the right race. That's for sure. He was, he's been a racing fan and we actually
met at the racetrack and he thought that was just so cool. And I got him a hard card so he could
like experience it and he stayed up the whole race. Like when you talk to people about 24 hour
race and staying up for like 36 hours, nobody really understands it until you do it. So it was
nice that he was there and he kind of understood it. He stayed up the whole race too and then we won.
And that was definitely a cool feeling to experience with the guys winning and having him
there. That was, that was really special. He was almost like a good luck term there.
What was it like being in Le Mans for the first time in the city, the way the town fills up with
people and the whole pomp and circumstance around? What was that? How did that hit you?
That was like just walking into the track. It's like, you don't know where you're going. You
don't know where anything is. And then you walk into like the paddock row. And it's like, whoa,
this is like a kid at Disney World, just the setup they have. It's just so crazy. It's just over
the top. And then you walk into the garage and just how everything is, the fact that the garage
and pit lane is right there and the crowd on race day is just insane. It's sold out like within a
couple of days or hours or something, their tickets. You don't get that kind of fans at IMSA.
It's like, kind of makes you feel more normal. We do get like some crazy fans or counts and
like breaking records every race, but something about Le Mans, when you look up in the stands
and it's just full, it's just that awe feeling. And like, wow, like all these people are here
to watch us. And this great race that like, I grew up watching on TV and now I'm a part of it.
Going to school as a pastry chef. I did a year of college and then I went out to California,
trained with a French pastry chef. And I always thought baking would bring me to Paris and school
there and turns out race cars brought me there. So Paris and yeah, Le Mans was the first year was
just outstanding. Even going back this year, it's something that doesn't fade. It was the same
the second time around. And it's going to be the same the third time when we go next year.
I like your thinking. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's funny. You mentioned baking. That was one of the
things that hit me the very first time I went to France was just how I mean, you get so used to
the food in North America and like gas station food is traditionally bad and bigger cities
traditionally have better food than smaller towns and villages. And then you go to France and you
pick up some random, you know, three year old sandwich in a gas station is one of the best
things you've had in weeks, because they just have this different relationship with food.
It's so funny. And it's one of those little cultural things. You just don't notice till
you're there, right? Yeah, and just it's crazy there, the pastries and everything. It's like,
I learned how to make these with a French chef and now I get to be at the racetrack eating them.
It's like the two worlds come together. I've never actually gone and gotten pastries anywhere in
Le Mans anywhere to go like in the village itself. Did you find any place? I didn't really travel too
much. We didn't really have that much time. But where we line up for scrutiny, there's the windows
there. And there was this one shop. It's yellow on the outside. I never actually went in it. But
they have like all the little pastries that are like with the mirror glaze on top and so pretty.
So there's that place. I'm sure it's probably pretty good.
I just remember getting off the train there the first time and walking out and I had timed it
so that I forget what day it is. There was like a farmer's market on the cobblestones right outside
the train station. And this this little French lady in a little hat was like she likes some eggs.
And she handed me these eggs that looked like they had been in a chicken 30 seconds before. And
I just wanted to sit down and never leave and spend the rest of my life there. So we're about
out of time. But I've got one more thing I want to ask and I want to kind of get your take on
because it's so it's so intrinsic to how pro racing works. And so many people don't it's not
that they don't know it. It's that they don't quite understand the scope of it and can't wrap
their head around just how accessible it is. You know, every IMSA race has a lot of part time
crew members. And many of the full time crew members have transitioned out of being part
time. You know, some of them are flying. But a lot of that work is so much more attainable.
Those jobs are so much more attainable than most people think. And so much of it requires
you don't have to have decades and decades of schooling or training to do it.
You can just bake somebody a cake and offer to help or walk in and say hi. There are so many
people working in the paddock that don't even have the background that you did, you know,
a family into cars. There's no wrong way in. Do you have any advice for anyone who wants to get
into the sport at this level stuff you wish you'd known or things you've learned that helped you
anything that you'd like to pass along? Yeah, so obviously my story is a little special. It's
baking and not engineering or anything. So there is, I feel like I'm a great example of
anybody can do one of these jobs, not saying anybody can do it because it's easy, for sure.
But anybody can do it if you want to work hard. And if you have that passion and you can set your
mind to it, you can definitely go out there. You can do it. There's lots of jobs out there.
Teams are always looking. And if you just get your foot in that door, just helping clean the
wheels or polish the trailer or anything, then just make friends, make those relationships.
Doors will open. They'll be there. And if you're just willing to jump in and say, yeah,
let me see if I can sink or swim and figure it out, then you can do it. It's definitely
take some tough skin and a special work ethic. But a lot of people can do it. There's a lot of
different people in the paddock and different routes to get there. That's exactly right.
But the key to me, I've seen a lot of people try to do that. And what happens is on day two,
when they say, no, you're going to have to be here till midnight. And they say, yeah,
but I got here at 6am. And people go, yeah, that's pretty normal. They're out.
The key to you is that you had a passion for it enough where you really, really,
really wanted to do it. And you would stay till midnight. And if they came at midnight and said,
I got to stay another hour, you'd be like, yeah, okay, what do I do? And that's why racing is
so competitive. And we always talk about that, that trying to be 1% better every weekend. And
you're always looking to do that. And so is everybody else on the team. And we're not the
only ones. All of our competitors are trying to do exactly the same thing. So it just keeps
notching everybody up. That would be my advice, because it'd be easy to say, okay, here's how
you get in the sport. You start out in a auto shop with your dad and grandpa, and then you go
to baking school. And I mean, that's not a path. That is not the way to do it. But there are some
good, good stories that you told that people can glom onto and understand how they could
take their weird path and end up in the same kind of spot. And if you have a passion for it,
and I drive for it, like, I always loved racing. So it's not necessarily a job. It doesn't feel
like a job. It's more of, like, I get paid to do my hobby. When I'm not at a racetrack working,
I'm at a local racetrack, the drag strip, going to NHRA or NASCAR. It's no different. It's just
sometimes I get paid to be at the track, and sometimes I don't.
Right on. Before I let you go, before we wrap this up, I'm curious, how do you look at next
steps? Is there anything you've got on your mind that you'd like to move toward professionally?
Where would you like to go in the sport? Honestly, I just kind of go with the flow. I never,
never expected to be full-time and never expected to do tires, just kind of doors open. And it's
like, yeah, let's go try this. Let's go try that. I would love to grow within the team,
see what other doors are opening. And yeah, I really love the family that we've kind of made. Our
team is special. And yeah. Awesome. I think that's a good way to wrap it. We are now out of time.
That's the show, which means it is time to read us out. But before that, Ashley, I want to thank
you for taking the time to be here. And Jeff, thank you for suggesting this to begin with.
Ashley, it's been nice to get to know you. Thank you. It was fun.
It's Not The Car is written, produced, and built by us. I'm the show's producer and creator. If
you like this episode, and you'd like to help us keep going, well, in good news, you can. Check out
patreon.com forward slash not the car and click become a member. We also have a birch store and
a show site at it'snotthecar.com. We do not sell cake, but I'm thinking about it, man, because
why not sell cake? If you can sell cake and the choice is either sell cake or not sale cake,
what you do it if you're not selling cake? Sell some cake. In a nutshell,
Patreon memberships and purchase sales are what make it's not the car possible. We do this show
on our own dime because we like it and because we wanted to see something like it out in the world,
we don't make a profit. If you're enjoying the show, please leave a review and share it with
anyone you think might enjoy it. Your recommendations make a huge difference and they really do
help us keep it's not the car on the air. As always, thank you for listening. Ashley,
Jeff, good luck with the rest of the season. Jeff, you want to say? I'm going to say it. Have fun.
Have fun. Thanks, Ashley. Thanks.
About this episode
Racing careers aren’t just about speed—they’re built on reliability, relationships, and showing up when it counts. Ashley Bailey, an IMSA tire specialist, walks through how she moved from non-racing work into pro paddocks, then explains what tire specialists actually do: engineering-level tire and wheel logistics, pressure targets, sensor systems, nitrogen purging, and weather-driven planning. Along the way, the episode contrasts IMSA and SRO/Le Mans culture, shares Daytona/Le Mans weekend realities, and highlights how teams keep improving “trying to be 1% better every weekend.”
Once, Ashley Baily was a pastry chef. Now she’s the 26-year-old, Daytona-winning tire chief for an IMSA Corvette team. Landing that leap took guts, passion, and five years of working two demanding jobs at once.
(Plus cake. There was a silly amount of cake.)
Want a job in pro racing? If you're ready to knuckle down and work like hell, it’s closer than you think. This episode is the latest installment in our HOW I GOT HERE series—a dive into just what it takes to land a career in professional motorsport. We asked Ashley for her story.
(We also asked about cake. Because cake.)
Fun fact: INTC co-host Jeff Braun is the competition director for Ashley’s IMSA team, 13 Autosport. After more than 40 years in pro racing, from Le Mans to stock cars and beyond, Jeff says Ashley is the best tire specialist he’s ever worked with.
This episode was produced by Sam Smith.
Thanks, as always, to our friends at BFGoodrich for supporting the show!
***
FREE 115-page BFGoodrich High-Performance Driving Guide written by Ross Bentley:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver, a bestselling author, and a world-renowned performance coach. Jeff Braun is a champion race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning writer and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts—we love it for what it asks of the meatbag at the wheel.
