James Coker

This is, is off track.

Man, that countdown is really dramatic on, on this Program.

I know. I was just thinking

That it's like, why is five se it starts at five, who needs five seconds?

Three is, is like, what's the TV Industry standard?

What's the, you know, the five four?

No. Wow. Wow. No, no. Tim, you screwed that up.

You're not a good, that's a Wayne Waynes world reference.

Yes. Except they go down to three

and then two and one are silent.

He stopped a second Too early. .

Oh, well I was waiting for you guys to mouth along and do the nod No from Waynes World.

No, we're not gonna, we're not gonna help you when you're failing in a joke.

Hi everybody, uh, welcome to Offtrack with Hinch or Rossi today Tuesday episode.

And I'm so excited for our guest today.

James Coker joins us on the show and well, hello. Welcome to the show.

Howdy. Thanks so much for having me.

Uh, super excited to be coming to you live from a basement in Aurora, Illinois. ,

Where is your counterpart?

We were wondering if he was gonna make the show .

Um, so, so James, I don't know how many people that listen to the show know your work.

Um, I hope that probably very few.

No, I think you'd be surprised.

Our fan base is very hardcore in Decar fans and you have become like kind of a staple for the, uh, the online community and the in-person community now of, uh, of the IndyCar world.

So I guess let's open with, explain a little bit about what it is you do in terms of the ecosystem of, of IndyCar and, and why we have all heard of you.

Sure. So in the last two years,

I accidentally became a me work content creator.

This was not, not a part of the plan at all. I

Know the feeling.

Yeah. , Tim's like I was supposed

to be a screenwriter set up producing this podcast.

Um, you are a screenwriter, I will say that. Sure. Um, .

But, um, in the last two years, uh, I have built a following making Formula One and IndyCar content.

I sometimes cover other series like World Endurance Championship, ams, a, this, that, or the third.

But I am originally an actor and a comedian.

And about two years ago, my wife and I made one video that I put on my Instagram as a joke where we were doing Team Talk and she was pretending to be my race engineer and I was pretending to be the driver.

And, uh, it went super viral and ESPN and Sports Illustrated and motorsport.com picked it up.

And that sort of started everything.

And I started posting more Motorsport videos, whether it be IndyCar and Formula One.

So now a lot of people follow me for funny takes on things that are happening in IndyCar. And F1

Is the, is the wife into racing at all or has the She started to with this.

She watches it. Yeah.

Okay. , that's a, that's a like that's a soft Yeah.

Soft maybe like No, she follows it.

She follows a lot of, she follows a lot of the counts.

She, she'll watch if a race is not at, like, she was not gonna wake up at 4:00 AM to watch back who with me, but Right.

She, she, I, I'd say she watches about half of the F1 races and a handful of the IndyCar races over the course of the season.

But she knows that Lando winning in Silverstone is a big deal.

Sure. Yeah. She was more excited for Nico Holgenburg

to get us first podium who was podium, but yeah. Who

Wasn't Everybody else on that podium? No. Even they,

I don't know if you watched this, Tim All pry talked about was Holberg's Podium and he completely, I was Just talking about they're spraying.

Yeah. They, they didn't really spray

'em. I don't know. There was something on

Twitter.

Right. So you're not a comedic writer,

you're just like a more of a dramatic writer.

Uh, when you do your screenplays go, I'm saying you're o for two on the funny stuff.

Let's just step it up a notch. We're in presence. I

Creative wasn't be funny.

There, there is stuff going on online about that.

Anyway, Do you wake up on Alex's side of the bed today? What the hell

Happened?

I'm trying to bring, I'm trying to bring a little bit of Alex Energy into this episode since he couldn't do it.

You can leave it. It's fine. We don't need it.

I will say you guys have a very funny dynamic, and I've already told Tim this before, but you guys have like a motor sports smart list thing going on where you are like, hence you were like the, the like happy go lucky, like very friendly personality.

Rossi is the grump, very much like the Will Anette coded guy.

And Tim, I'm here.

Tim is clearly Sean Hayes who gets on by both of you guys. ,

Right, because, because I'm gayman in this. I'll take it.

Even though t's Canadian, I see you.

I see how you got there with Alex.

It's more of a personality thing, not so much nationality thing. Yeah, true. I usually

Just get, uh, Peggy from the Skyler sisters from Hamilton just there.

Yes. Right. I bring a real

and Peggy energy to this whole thing.

Peggy, you got a real and Peggy vibe to you.

That is a hundred percent Accurate. ,

Man, that's such an inside joke.

I, James, I love that you laughed at that and that you clearly also, uh, I love Hamilton, Mike Hamilton as much as we do.

I saw it with the original cast. Yeah.

I cried seven times watching that musical. Jealous.

Jealous. Yeah. Okay. That was amazing.

So I wanna, I wanna backtrack a half cup.

Um, James, you said you've been in LA for five years, Burbank for the last two.

Where are you from originally?

I grew up in Texas, uh, was there till I was 17.

Went to a boarding school in New Jersey for my last two years of high school, college in Florida.

Then I moved to New York after college and I worked in production for 10 years as a production assistant on TV shows and movies.

And during that time I was also studying and performing improv and sketch comedy at UCB in New York.

So Oh, nice. I was, I was, it's huge.

I, yeah, I sort of had, uh, you know, one foot in sort of the production route for a long time.

I thought I wanted to be be an assistant director in TV and film, and I was also taking improv classes and sketch comedy classes on the weekends.

And then I, I fell more in love with performing and writing than working on the production side.

So I started slowly pivoting away from that career track and trying to pursue, uh, writing and performing more.

And, uh, started like booking like small bits on commercials and whatnot and few small parts on TV shows.

And then in like 2018, I was cast as a spokesperson for Spectrum and Spectrum Mobile.

It's like a cable company or you know, wireless provider depending on where you're In the country.

They were sponsors were on my team at one point, .

Oh yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Uh, so I, for three years, that's all I did.

I, I shot 20 commercials a year for three years and made like six figures and I got to quick job and it was, was best.

It's bad. It's like hitting the lottery

And Yeah.

Like a national TV commercial campaign is like one of the greatest gigs in acting.

A hundred percent. And as you would know,

because your wife is an actor making that sweet Hallmark money, but .

Uh, But it was, it was amazing.

I worked eight days a year and made six figures.

It was like, it was, it was incredible. And then

I've got half of that down working eight days a year, working eight days a year thing down.

Yeah. Yeah. Your paycheck's got six figures in it.

The decimal was just in a different place.

And so then, then that, that went from like 18 to 21 and my wife was working at Meta at the time, and so we, we both had like two pretty good incomes.

And then she got laid off my, my campaign ended around the same time.

During that time we had also just bought a house, so we were like, oh God, I gotta, we gotta figure something out.

So I started really making an effort to make videos online thinking like, oh, it wasn't so much that I wanted to be like an influencer or a content creator.

I was trying to go viral to get hired by like a company Right.

To work for their social team. And that did work.

So I was able to find a job at SoFi, which is where I work right now.

I work for SoFi the Bank as a content creator and copywriter on their, uh, social team. But Okay.

It, In, during that journey, I also sort of fell ass backwards into making Motorsport con content.

So what did you study in Florida?

Almost like a business major.

It was like, I, it had nothing to do with what I did.

Those generic, like, yeah, I don't know what I wanna do in school, so I'll go into the generic business course A hundred percent. And

Yeah, I I did the same thing .

Yeah. And it wasn't until two months

before I graduated that I realized I wanted to work in TV and film in some capacity.

I think I always knew I wanted to do something creative, but my parents were very bad with money, so I didn't want to pursue a career that was like risky.

Right. So I thought taking the production

track was like a safer bet.

I was still like involved in something that I loved, but I, it was more stable.

So it, it all happened because two months before I graduated, there was a film festival that came to our campus called Campus Movie Fest.

And this is before anybody had smartphones.

So this was 2006, 2007.

They gave everybody a camcorder and a laptop for a week, and you got to go off and like, make a short film.

And I made a short film about a guy who like gets in an accident and he wakes up thinking that he's a hockey player from the 1970s named Tom Young Hands, who was a real, real guy of, Tom was a one of that, those cliche things.

Yeah. Yeah. Tom, Tom Young Hands was a real guy

who spent like six seasons in the NHL mainly with the Minnesota North Stars.

So this guy like wakes up and thinks he's this guy named Tom Young Hands.

And he is like, I was like rollerblading around my campus, like cross checking people in the bushes had like a fake mustache and like a Joah helmet and, and like, I loved like making like stupid this stupid video and making people laugh.

And I, it aired at the, at the campus movie Fest and out of like 50 entries at one best comedy and like for the rest of the year, I was walking around campus and people would be quoting the movie at me or short film at me.

Like people would be like yelling at me from their car.

'cause the, this guy would be like, that's amazing.

This guy would, he would yell, slap Shot, you'd go, Hey, my, I'm young.

He said, play Minnesota North Stars and like his, I don't know if you could say this on this podcast, but his, one of his catchphrases was Suck My <inaudible> .

And then he would yell, slap you, or he'd yell, cross check.

And so there's all these videos of me, like cross checking kids into pools or cross checking kids in the bushes and people Can We, can we get a copy of this just not for publishing? Man, I just wanna

See it.

It's on online. I'll find it and I'll send it to you.

I, I think I put it on private please.

So I'll I'll put that unlisted so you can watch it.

But it's very stupid. But like,

people were quoting it at me, I'm like, oh, this is fun.

Like, maybe I wanna do something with this.

And I, I had friends that had, were working in TV and film in New York, and so they hooked me up with like my first few jobs doing like, uh, day playing stuff, working like a day here, day there on TV shows.

But while I was in New York, I went to UCB one night and saw an improv show and immediately fell in love with, uh, performing live comedy.

And that's sort of how I got hooked there and started taking classes.

That's so cool, man. That's so cool. Yeah.

I know UCB is huge. I mean, that's a, that's a huge thing

for a lot of, a lot of actors and, and comics and things like that.

Um, so you, you post this video that goes viral mm-hmm .

Uh, were you, were you a big racing fan up to this point?

No, I, and I get a lot of hate still online for this, but I'm a very new fan.

Like, I'm, I'm part of that new generation of Drive to Survive fans that are Yeah.

Super, super new to the series.

You know, during the pandemic, my wife and I binged drive to survive in the matter of a few weeks, got really hooked, like, and started watching races immediately after that.

And so I, I'm, I was, when, when I posted that, I still knew very little about Formula One.

I was like very into it. And I had seen a few races at

that time, but my knowledge really was, was just what I'd seen on the Netflix show.

Right. And so I I, I posted that video thinking like,

all right, it's gonna get like 200, 300 likes, like not thinking much of it.

And then I woke up the next morning, it was viral, and I told myself, I still have footage from when I was in the car with my wife.

I'll cut three more versions of this video.

And all three of those videos went viral and all, you know, all these different outlets wanted to repost it and share it.

And so I was like, okay, like let me make one more video that's F1 related.

And so I made like a Buzzfeed listicle type video where I was comparing drivers on the F1 grid to Mario Kart characters .

And, and that went super viral.

And so I was like, okay, I'll keep, and so I started getting all these followers who were following me for these, these F1 videos I made.

So I told myself, okay, I'll keep making like Motorsport content until it stops getting engagement.

And then it just never did. Right.

Never stopped getting engagement. So

That, that's, I mean, so I was gonna, that was gonna be my next question is like, was the pressure then immediately on like, oh, <inaudible>, this is working, I now need to dive into and lean into the Motorsport side of things?

I think it's one of those things where I, I, when I get into something, I get really obsessive about it and I start going down the rabbit hole and trying to learn as much as I can.

We have one of those on the show. Yeah. .

Yeah, exactly. . Um, I, I was the same way with, uh,

with soccer, uh, 10 years ago when the Premier League first came to America via NBC sports, I was very, very into European football, but also MLS, like, I was a season ticket holder for New York City FC for five Seasons.

I was watching, you know, premier League Champions League.

I was also watching like all of the World Cup qualifyings.

My wife and I went to France and we went to the Euro tournament in 2016 mm-hmm .

Um, so I get really obsessed about things once I get really into 'em.

And so it, it wasn't so much a pressure, uh, I was already, you know, getting pretty deep into it.

And I also was already making these jokes with my wife and my friends, so I was like, I might as well just put it out into the world.

And for me, even though, even now, this is still like a side thing that I do for fun, right?

This is not, this is not something I am actively trying to pursue as a career or a full-time thing.

And I think that sort of helps, uh, keep things a little lighter and takes the pressure off for me to like constantly like be obsessed with the concept of like, going viral.

You have these, these F1 videos that are hitting F1 obviously is through the roof and everybody's, you know, popular or, you know, everybody loves it.

It's very popular. Yeah.

You start sort of, um, branching off into other forms of motorsports, indie cars, sports cars, whatever.

Where does that come from?

Was this you thinking, well, hey, if, if racing is working, let's try to hit some of the IndyCar audiences, the sports car audiences and NASCAR audiences, or were you getting requests from people they're like, Hey, do that, but for IndyCar People definitely request it.

But it's more so my general curiosity.

I think it was the same thing that, you know, when I started watching Premier League English, premier League soccer made me want to start watching other leagues, right?

Formula One was like the gateway drug for the rest of the world of Motorsport for me.

So for me it was like F1.

And you know, there's only, I say only, but there's 23 races on the calendar. Then two, it's too 20

James, it's too many.

I think it should be 18. I just love the idea of,

of Motorsport like gateway drug.

'cause it's just figure, like you go down a bad path and you're just watching NHRA at three in the morning on the side of the road.

100, 100%. Yeah, . Exactly. .

But, but, you know, but, but on weekends where there is enough one to watch, I was like, how else can I get my fix?

What else can I watch? So for me,

the actual progression was IndyCar open wheel racing in the us And then, you know, I was like, okay, let me watch the 24 hours of Daytona, let me watch World Endurance Championship.

Let me see what else there is.

And so it was, it was less requests from people and more so just me wanting to learn more about the different aspects of Motorsport because I, I say this like, in, in my opinion, I, I think there are, there is racing in other series that's more exciting than Formula One.

Formula One, like the packaging is incredible, the marketing is incredible, but often I don't, this is not a definitive thing, but often the on track action isn't there, the way Right.

You see it in a series like IndyCar.

Yeah, a hundred percent. Um,

and that's something that we've leaned into heavily for the last Sure, yeah.

20 years. Uh,

it's funny, your, your progression, just so you know, I'm not sure if you saw Brad Pitt's interview on armchair expert with Dak Shepherd, but your progression is exactly the same as Brad Pitt.

So you're basically Brad Pitt I thought of you.

Yeah. Which I thought of you in that context. , I thought we

Had Brad today.

I do see some similarities. Yeah, I think he's next week.

Um, he got robbed recently. I heard.

So he is a little occupied with, with some, some of that stuff.

Okay. So you, you start doing more videos just

because of your idol curiosity.

At what point does it go from, Hey, I'm doing these cool videos, people are liking them, they're, they're blowing up online to, Hey James, we'd like you to come out to a race.

Hey, here's some money to post a video about X.

Like, what was the first Motorsport related sort of like, like good job you got in that Sense?

That's a great question. I'd have to go back

and look at my post. I'm not exactly

Dms.

Yeah, I'm not exactly sure.

I, I, I think the first big job that I was given was from Formula E and Okay.

They, hi, they hired me last season to be a content creator over the course of the entire season.

And so I went to round one of Season 10 in Mexico City at the Auto Drer Mar or Monte Rodriguez.

And I was, before then, I had, was not very familiar with Formula E, but I made a point to like watch Formula E Unplugged, which is like their version of Dry to Survive, which is on YouTube.

I watched a lot of old races, I read up as much as I could to be as, uh, well versed in the series as I could, given that I had never watched a race before.

Uh, and you know, they, and you know, they paid me like 10 grand over the course of the season to make, uh, videos for them.

But I, I ended up delivering like 50 pieces of content for them over the course of the season and one of them that, um, it's a good deal.

Yeah. And, um, o one of the videos that I made for them,

which is just one I made in my garage, which was me explaining Formula E to myself was the most viral piece of content that they've ever had an outside creator make.

Uh, and so they got their money back in my, in my opinion.

And so I think that was, that was the first real sort of job I got out of this because I, not only did I get to attend Mexico City, I also got to attend rounds 13 and 14 in Portland.

And it was so interesting to see, see the dynamic shift because I showed up at the beginning of the season in Mexico City.

Nobody knows who I am.

They think I'm just like this idiot, which I am, but , uh, making stupid content.

And some of the drivers were on board, some maybe weren't because they weren't sure exactly what I was doing.

And like, I also know, as you probably are familiar with this, uh, hinge, sometimes you have like a creator approach you to make a piece of content with you and you're not exactly sure what their intentions are.

Like, are they gonna be, are they gonna be having fun with me or are they gonna try to make me the butt of the joke?

Right? So there, there was like a lack

of trust there the first round when I showed up.

But by the time I got to Portland, this one video had just gone viral like the week before.

And I had drivers coming up to me saying how much they liked my video and how they had like watched it in the debriefs.

I had like James Barclay, who was the team principal of TCS Jaguar racing, like coming up to me saying how much he liked my stuff.

And it was very weird that all of a sudden I showed up and like everybody knew who I was.

Yeah, that is, that is an interesting, it, it's an interesting shift, right?

But it's, it's true. You're, you're a hundred percent right

when you say that when you know your PR person comes to you and they're like, Hey, you're doing this video with this person, and you're like, okay, what?

And it's, it's got that sort of jokey tone to it. Yeah.

You never know, you know, you are kinda opening yourself up a little bit.

Um, I, I remember the first one of yours that I saw, I think was you explaining IndyCar to yourself.

I think that was the first one that made it to my feed Yeah.

And died laughing and then obviously had to binge everything else that you'd done up to that point.

Oh, thanks. So that's,

but yeah, I mean, it's, it's gotta be cool kind of breaking into these worlds, right?

Because I imagine you've seen the same sort of thing from F1 and from IndyCar as well.

I would say I get a lot more love from the world of IndyCar than I do from Formula One, because I think Formula One still has like this old guard of fandom there.

There's, there's still a lot of gatekeepers. Yeah. Fan.

The last appropriate time, the last appropriate time to get into F1 is whenever you personally got into it, anybody who got in after you correct?

Yes. Doesn't, isn't isn't a real fan.

You're not, like, you're not allowed to love, uh, if you're involved in Formula One.

So that's probably why you're not feeling as much.

It's not really, it's not a personal thing.

They're, they're physically incapable in that world.

Yeah. So I, I get a lot of, uh,

negative feedback from my Formula One content a bit because people, a lot of the older fans just don't like the way the sport is consumed today.

And that that's not just with content creators, it's also like how we consume sports in general and social media and and whatnot.

But I get a lot more love from IndyCar people than I do from F1.

Like going to the Indy 500 was very surreal because, and, and I'm not, I'm not exaggerating when I say like, over the course of those three, and I'm sure you get this all the time at Hitch, but like, I have like a hundred people ask for photos with me and like, stop me and talk, talk to me.

Which like was very weird.

I'm like, I'm just sitting in my garage making these dumb videos.

Like I don't think I realized, uh, how many people were into it, you know?

Yeah. I, I, I,

I'm like secretly hoping one of them stopped you.

Like, Hey, are you the spectrum guy? I .

The funniest moment that happened is the first day I showed up, it was like Thursday, so it was like media day, the day before Carb Day, I'm walking into the media center and I had like five people stop me and asked for photos, which I thought, I was like, oh, this is cool.

Like, people know who I am here.

And then another guy came up to me, he goes, Hey, I love your IndyCar videos.

Thanks so much for everything you're doing for the sport.

Really love him. I'm like, great, you want a picture?

He goes, nah man, I'm good. .

I was like, thank you. I needed that.

I needed someone to humble me and bring me back down there you Just for a little bit.

Oh, that's fantastic. .

So let's talk a bit about your, you're coming to the 500 'cause you were a guest of McLaren, right?

Yes. Yeah, yeah,

Yeah.

I mean, you did the Super eight content where you were filming that stuff.

And I mean, was did it, was the Canons that reached out to you right?

And like, did they have a, a specific thing they wanted to do?

Or was it just like, Hey, come on out.

So essentially what happened is I was at Long Beach and I was, I, I brought a video videographer there and I, I was there with Indy Carr and I was just getting some driver interviews.

I interviewed, you know, Scott McLaughlin, Felix Rosenquist, Marcus Armstrong, uh, David Lucas.

And I was doing, um, a my videographer was following me around during practice one when I was just walking up and down the pits and I was just sort of, you know, getting B roll and also just sort of doing some commentary.

And as we were leaving the pits after the first practice session, uh, someone from Aaron McLaren came up to me who I'd never met before, and it's like, Hey, when are you gonna come take a garage tour?

And I had no idea who this person was.

I was like, uh, I don't know, do you want to, how about after this session?

He is like, sure. Turns out it was, uh, Benito Santos

or Bonni Dos Santos, who is the head of brand marketing from Aaron McLaren.

Yeah. And he ended up giving me a

tour of, of the garage.

And we filmed it and it was great.

And I, I, I got to meet, uh, Lauren got in.

And then also when I left Benito then texted me that Tony had watched my videos before and was pissed that he didn't bring him out to meet me.

'cause at First Benita, 'cause at first Bonita was like, oh, Tony's really busy.

Like, sorry, you're not gonna get a chance to meet him.

But then he texted me later saying Tony was pissed that he didn't get to get to meet me .

So, so Tony, uh, decided he wanted to bring me out, uh, to, for the 500 and make some content.

And I made like four videos with Tony, uh, made, I interviewed Nolan and and Christian and then the super eight thing was just like an extra thing that I had.

I'd like, I got really drunk one night and bought a Super eight film camera.

And, uh, as one does, We've all been there and I never like used it before.

And it, it, some of it was pretty out of focus, but some of it also came out pretty well.

And that was fun. So, yeah. So

What was, what for you, you know, that was your first time with the 500, I'm assuming?

Yeah. So what was the highlight of the weekend for you

and why was it the weenie 500 ? The

Weenie 500 was amazing.

Oh my God. I think also on top of the, the,

the weenie 500 y'all's commentary on the weenie 500 was so good.

I was just thinking you guys must have spent like a week coming up with as many hot dog puns as you could. No less

Was like an hour.

We, we got told very late that this was even happening and like, what we were supposed to be doing during it, and we were making most of this up on the fly.

We had had like a short list of some like, oh, this one, you know, we gotta catch up to the car in front, like the really corny ones.

And then it just snowballed until like increasingly in inappropriate innuendo esque, but like got totally into jokes straight real quick.

Yeah, yeah. And the best, as Buxton tells a story,

he's like, I didn't realize till like halfway through Lap two that you guys were doing jokes.

I thought we were still doing hotdog jokes. .

And I was like, I was like, you dropped Slippery Wiener in there. .

That's a legit hotdog joke for you.

Like, what kind of world, what are they eating over there in England? Jesus,

Man, it was, it was so good.

I was, because I was listening to the, uh, commentary on my radio when I was at the track and I was just cracking up at all the jokes you guys were making. It was so fun.

We knew, I'm still mad that I had to interview Creed during that and like interviewing Creed is pretty cool, right?

Yeah. Like, that's not something to be mad about,

but I was like, but I wanted to watch the Weenie 500.

Yeah. It, it is, it is unfortunate

that you were in a situation where interviewing, like an interview with Creed was the second coolest thing happening in that space at that time.

My daughter left, yes.

My daughter left watching me interview Creed to go watch the weenie 500.

Her defense. Yeah, I heard of,

but it heard of it's like a, like a 10 ish year old, you know, girl Probably.

Oh, I would've done the, the exact same thing though.

Not a huge Creed fan and the, you know, novelty of six giant hotdog racing each other.

The Speedway probably was a little more captivating.

Uh, James, what do you have on the calendar coming up any more IndyCar races this year?

Any more F1 races this year? What's the, what's the plan?

I think I might be going to Coda, uh, for the USGP with a brand that has not solidified yet.

But other than that, no other plans.

I have exhausted all of my PTO this year From .

So like I can't really travel to that many other races at This point.

That's a fair point. That's a fair point.

Is there, like, is there a point at which you cross that threshold where you're like, day jobs are cool, but like this is something that could be more beneficial for me and my family?

Possibly. I, you know,

at this point it's still very much like a, a a lucrative side hustle, but not enough for me to make enough money to, to support, to support my family.

And I really do enjoy my day job and I like the people that I work with, so I'm going to try to balance both as long as I possibly can. So we'll see.

Do, do people at work get super jealous that your weekends are like at the Indy 500 and F1 races and you're meeting all these people and doing all this cool shit?

It some, some are Motorsport fans, but then, then also because especially in the United States, motorsport is, is still relatively niche.

Some people have no idea what I'm doing and they don't care. .

And that's probably for the best. That's probably for best. Like,

Oh, that's nice you make little car content, good for you. , something like that

Can also relate living in La .

That's a great point. Yeah, that's a great point, Tim.

Uh, I never thought about it in the context of you 'cause I don't think about you that Often.

Yeah, you don't really think about me. Um, yeah,

No, no, no.

You make that very clear, caring context.

Uh, well James, look, I, I gotta just tell you from, I, I was a huge fan from the very first piece of content I ever saw of yours.

Oh, thank you. I continue to be,

and you know, for me, I just love the fact that you are appealing to this new generation of Motorsports fan.

You are educating them on not just one series, but all and kind of helping bring more people, you know, to the sport, to the track, to the TV broadcast, whatever it is.

You, you are truly doing our sport a huge service.

And we all really appreciate you for that. Oh,

Thank you. Yeah, it's,

it's , Tim Frank.

You're fine. Listen, it's, it's, it's been a lot of fun

and I think when I first came along, I think what the appeal was, the fact was the fact that there wasn't a ton of like comedic content in this space before I started doing this.

The only people I really saw doing it were, uh, Connor Moore who does the impressions.

He is like, he's, he's amazing and super talented and, uh, the, the red flags guys, but their stuff is like in podcast form, right?

They don't really do like sketches Or, and nobody likes podcasts, hand Loads, .

And, uh, yeah, it, I'm, it's, it's been fun to like take this skillset that I've developed over like a decade and apply it to something like niche and specific like, like Motorsport.

And I love it. I want to continue to learn as much

as I can about it and, um, yeah, just keep it going.

Love it. Love it. Yeah.

Well again, thanks for what you do. Thanks for coming out,

uh, coming on the show and coming out.

You went in your basement. Thanks for coming

to your basement to be on the show. Thanks for the time.

He's in his garage. He's in his

Garage.

Oh, garage. Sorry, gr yeah. Yeah.

The basement was the, the Wayne's world. I

See, I see some fire suits. Come on. You've

Never seen Zodiac.

There are no basements in California.

That's true. Great point. That's a great point.

Nor should there be, um, I'm bummed that you have no car races on the schedule coming up, but I totally understand why I hope that we get you out to one soon.

'cause I like what you do and it'd be fun to go grab a beer, but in the meantime, I see a road trip to Monterey coming up for us.

Vince . It's not, that's, I mean,

you could just come for the weekend, right?

I mean, it's, you're right. You don't have, it's, you know,

it's just saying, I've done that drive Friday, it's not a big deal.

Portland's a short flight, you know?

Are y'all bringing the N 64 to every race now?

It is in the booth. It's part of the booth package.

Like, it travels to all races.

It is set up every week and it is hilarious.

Is it? I'm the only guy Mario Kart?

No. So we, we started with goldeneye, we opened

with goldeneye Classic.

We have, we've gotten, uh, we've got about six or seven games now, but I think we've only managed to play Mario Carton Goldeneye, which That's all you need.

The only two that really matter.

So like, it would have to be an extended rain delay for us to branch outside of that. Sure. Um,

Yeah, I mean, could play a of time, but that's a single player game. .

Yeah, we're not, that's, I'm just About you guys sitting in the booth watching Townsend Bell trying to learn how to play Merola's mask I With the water temple .

Whoa. That spike ball came outta nowhere.

This is the BTS content the world did know they needed.

And, uh, and the water. I can't wait

For it.

The water temple comes back with anger. ,

I think we can all agree the water temple can get, It's the worst.

Always has been, always will be.

Uh, , thanks again for coming out pal and uh, we will chat to you soon and eagerly look forward to whatever you, uh, produce next. Awesome.

Thanks y'all. This has been off

track with Hinch and Rossi.

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James Coker

Ford Zodiac

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