Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor - May 30, 2026 - Hour 2
Ron Ananian The Car Doctor
Ron Ananian The Car DoctorMay 30, 2026
Ron Ananian, The Car Doctor - May 30, 2026 - Hour 2
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Concept
third of a mile oval track
A third-mile oval is a tiny race track. Because it’s so short, cars are turning and speeding up all the time, so it’s harder to keep control and the car has to work hard constantly.
A weak battery doesn’t have enough power to keep the car’s electronics happy. The car may still start, but the computers can act up and show warning lights.
Cars today have computers that run everything from engine management to safety systems. If the battery voltage is weak, those computers can get confused and cause weird problems or warning lights.
A marginal battery is “on its way out.” It might start the car, but when you drive and electrical loads increase, the voltage drops and the car’s electronics can start acting weird.
The timing chain keeps the engine’s moving parts in sync. If the oil isn’t right—especially when the engine is cold—it can cause the engine to run poorly.
The valve train is what opens and closes the engine’s valves. If it doesn’t move as freely—like when oil isn’t right in the cold—the engine can run rough.
A “train station car” is basically a car that only does short trips. Short trips don’t let the engine fully warm up, so moisture builds up and can cause problems over time.
Condensation is water that forms when warm air cools down. With lots of short trips, the car doesn’t get hot enough to dry out, so water builds up and can cause rust and other issues.
Modern diagnostics is the process of figuring out what’s wrong with a car using proper tests, not random guessing. The goal is to find the real problem so the fix actually works.
Live data is the real-time information your car’s computer is reading from sensors. A technician can watch it while testing to see what’s actually happening when the problem occurs.
This phrase means taking things apart without a real plan and hoping you stumble on the fix. The speaker is saying good diagnosis should be based on tests and information, not guesswork.
A fault code is a message your car’s computer saves when it notices something wrong. But sometimes the problem doesn’t show up as a code, especially if it only happens in certain situations.
The parking break pedal assembly is the part you press to set the parking brake. If it fails, it can require replacing connected parts so the parking brake works correctly again.
Parking brake cables are the cables that pull the parking brake when you press the pedal. If the pedal assembly is updated, the cables may also need to be replaced to fit and work properly.
A compressor is a pump. In cars it often means the A/C compressor, which helps the air-conditioning system cool the cabin by moving refrigerant through the system.
“Pressures” here refers to the measured pressures in the A/C system, which indicate whether refrigerant quantity and system operation are within expected ranges. Strange pressure readings can point to issues like low refrigerant, restrictions, or leaks—helping avoid misdiagnosis.
Service information is the official repair guide for a specific car. It tells the technician the right steps and specs so they can diagnose and fix the problem correctly.
Refrigerant is the special fluid the A/C uses to cool your car. If there isn’t enough of it, the A/C can act like a major part is broken even when the compressor isn’t the real problem.
“Repair” means fixing the real problem. “Replacement” means swapping a part out, which can be expensive—so diagnosing first can save money if the compressor isn’t actually the cause.
MAX AC is the setting that tries to cool the car as hard as possible. If it still doesn’t get cold on MAX AC, that points to a problem in the A/C system.
Pulling a vacuum means removing air and moisture from the A/C lines before adding refrigerant. It helps the system work correctly and reduces the chance of damage.
A manifold gauge set is a tool that connects to the A/C system and measures pressures. Those readings help a mechanic figure out what’s wrong, like whether there’s not enough refrigerant.
The high side is the part of the A/C system that runs at higher pressure. If its pressure is too low, the A/C may not be charged correctly or may have another problem.
“R-1234yf” is a newer type of A/C refrigerant used in many cars today. It’s not the same as older A/C refrigerants, so you usually need the right tools to service it correctly.
The condenser is a key part of your car’s A/C that helps dump heat outside. If it fails, the A/C usually won’t cool well, and you may see symptoms that look like a general “A/C problem.”
Your A/C needs airflow across the condenser to work well. If something blocks or changes airflow in the front area (like modifications near the grille), the A/C can lose cooling power.
The “one thirty four machine” refers to dedicated A/C service equipment matched to a specific refrigerant type (here, the older refrigerant family versus R-1234yf). Because the refrigerants aren’t interchangeable, the service machine must be compatible to avoid contamination and incorrect charge/recovery.
An A/C machine is the device a shop uses to properly service your car’s air conditioning. It helps remove old refrigerant and refill the system with the right amount so the A/C works correctly.
An automatic cycle process means the A/C service machine runs through the steps by itself, in a set order. That can make the job more consistent and reliable.
“Sportsmen modified” is the name of a type of race class. It usually means a certain set of rules about what kind of car you can run and how much you’re allowed to modify.
Car
Sportsman modified
A “Sportsman modified” is a type of race car built for oval tracks. It mixes ideas from stock-car racing and open-wheel racing, and it’s made to handle lots of turns at short-track speeds.
They’re talking about the driver’s home race track in New Jersey and what that track is like. That helps explain why the speeds and cornering feel the way they do.
An asphalt track is just the type of racing surface—pavement made of asphalt. The surface affects how much grip the tires get, which changes cornering and speed.
Quarter midgets are small race cars made for kids. They’re designed for real racing—so they have suspension and a small engine—but they’re scaled down and run on short tracks. Even though they’re not powerful, they can feel very fast to a young driver.
“One cylinder” means the engine only has one combustion chamber. That usually makes the engine simpler and smaller, which is why these youth race cars can be fun and fast without needing big power.
Shock suspension means the car has shock absorbers that help it stay controlled over bumps. In racing, that helps the tires grip the track instead of bouncing around.
That phrase means the track is extremely short—about a few hundred feet per lap. On a track that small, the car feels fast because you’re turning and accelerating again and again every few seconds.
Legend cars are small race cars designed to look like older stock cars. They’re built for racing in a specific class, usually for developing drivers, and they’re scaled down so they’re easier to race safely.
“Banking” means the race track is tilted in the corners. That tilt helps the car grip the road better so you can go faster through the turn. Drivers have to learn to trust it instead of panicking and braking too much.
“Off the pace” means you’re not keeping up with the speed of the other cars. On a race track, that can be risky because the faster cars behind you may have to react suddenly to avoid crashing. It’s about safety as much as speed.
LIVE
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start your engines. The Car Doctor is in the garage
and ready to take your call.
How'd you like to be in a car doing one hundred and ten miles an hour on a third of a mile oval track with sixteen other cars chasing you, or you're in the middle of the pack. Well, we're
gonna find out what that's like for Quinn Trim or Trimmer Motorsports. Down around the bottom of the hour as
he joins us to talk about sportsmen modified at the tracks he's racing up and down the Eastern Seaboard and well Wall Stadium in Wall, New Jersey. So Quinn's gonna
be coming by to talk about that. He told me
that pre interview, one hundred and ten miles an hour in this car? Are you crazy all the time? You
just described going down the Jersey turnpipe. Well, I didn't
want to say that, Tom, but that is true in a sense. As I was saying it, I said, that's
probably a bad way to describe it, but it's the truth.
It's the God's ones truth. He told me that the
speeds range anywhere from eighty to one hundred and ten miles an hour top to bottom, slow and fast, and it's only a third of a mile. Think about how
big a how long a third of a mile is.
As soon as you get on the straight, you're back in the corner. And he said, it's well, anyway, he'll
be here to talk to us about it. I want
to talk to you guys about today's cars. You know,
today's cars are not the simple machines they used to be.
I mean, there's no news flash there, right, You know, everything talks to everything. They're giant computers and there's no
news flash there and the and the goofiest things create problems right right. A weak battery you'll create six warning lights.
I mean, we've had cars that start but they have a weak battery, a marginal battery, and it'll the car will just do some really crazy things because like a desktop computer that's getting less than proper voltage, those vehicle computers go nuts. And it's easy to make a mistake
on a On a modern car, you know, you use the correct oil or the incorrect oil, the incorrect oil viscosity.
You know, the least you'll do is maybe affect timing chain where the worst case scenario is you'll create a misfire, especially in cold weather, because the engine won't be able to turn his free and the valve train won't operates as easily as it should, and you'll create a stutter and a miss and you'll be chasing a misfirefault. You
can skip a coolant service on a modern vehicle and run cool and longer, but then you run the risk of overheating the engine and making the turbo work harder and having a turbo problem and all of a sudden you've got a mess of trouble. You know. The one
thing I'm seeing a lot of I think ought to repair.
When you think about maintenance and how much should or shouldn't be done, you're seeing a divide between ownership styles.
And there's definitely ownership styles now right. Some people lease,
some people will buy and trade a car every three to four years, and some of you want to drive that thing ten or fifteen years because you just once it's paid for, you want to get value out of it.
You want to avoid the monthly payment. I think, how
do you maintain a car? Should you maintain a car?
How long should you keep a car? Or probably as
much discussed topics in American households and probably around the world as anything else, as the topics of the day, as the politics, the environment, the cost of living, everything else, it's that automobile has a lot to do with it.
You know, there's three different maintenance strategies. In my mind,
if you lease that vehicle, I don't even know if she's changed it. Well, I guess you have to change
the old depending on how many miles you go. But
you know, if the dealer says, hey, every ten thousand miles.
I do it every twelve. Who cares you're going to
get rid of the car? Now do it every ten.
If you own the vehicle long term, your goal is preservation.
You want to make that vehicle last as long as possible.
And if you've got that older train station car, well, I only go three miles, I go to the corner, I make a left, I go down the block. You're
actually harder on the engine than the other two, than the people that might be going longer on oil changes, or the people that own it and want to make it last forever. The train station car concept surprises people,
but it's the truth. Short trips are brutal. Condensation builds
up moisture content, the oil never really warms up, the battery doesn't recharge completely. The exhaust system rusts from the
inside out because all that moisture and condensation has to go somewhere. And then you guys are surprised when the
car with forty thousand miles or eighty thousand miles or sixty thousand miles on it has major problems. Mileage doesn't
tell the whole story anymore either. Usage matters, and another
thing you've got to understand is that modern diagnostics is not guesswork. It can't be. You know, We've been doing
this radio show a very long time. I've been in
business very long time doing this, and it always surprises me.
Somebody will say, you know, I spent one thousand dollars they changed XYZ. Did they do a diagnosis, Well, they
told me that was bad. But did they do a diagnosis?
Did you pay for it? You know why paying for
a diagnosis is the right way to go because it may make the mechanic stick their name on it. It
forces the mechanic to say, hey, we looked at it, we diagnosed it. It's this, and it ends the conversation
when that isn't it. Well, gee, I didn't diagnose it. Well,
I paid you for a diagnosis. Oh you did, and
there it is on an invoice. Good technicians read, good
technicians research, good technicians compare live data the days of throw apart at and hope. Well, they're supposed to be over,
and judging by the price of parts and the complexity of the automobile, they better be over. But diagnosis takes time.
You know, the car may only fail under certain conditions.
The issue may not set up fault code. The manufacturer
may have updated procedures that completely changes the regular approach.
Wait a car this week that had a parking break pedal assembly fail and we had to put a new park break pedal assembly in it, right from the manufacturer.
But the manufacturer, having had problems with this particular model of break pedal assembly, changed a few things and we were required to change the break cables to go with the new park break pedal assembly. Here's the problem. Two
months ago we changed two of the park break cables because they were seized and rusted and frozen and they didn't work. So now we have to change them again,
not through any fault of our own, but because the pedal assembly went bad. Cars changed, Cars evolved, the procedures changed.
The way you do something and the way you think about it has to evolve. No offense intended. But I
hate the comment about, well, my dad taught me how to do this and this is how he fixed cars.
And I always come back to and when was that, Well, nineteen sixty three, you think that was a while ago?
No disrespect again, is your father alive? Is he working?
Like?
What is he doing? We can't go by sixty year
old standard, forty year old standards, twenty year old standards.
In order repair yesterday was a long time ago, and how you fixed it yesterday may not be the way you're gonna fix it today. I had a vehicle recently
where the internet, according to the customer, they it said the compressor was bad. When I looked at it, the
pressures looked strange. The customer was more and more convinced.
But I looked at service information. I charged it correctly
because it wasn't charge right and the whole problem turned out to be low refrigerant. Now, her mechanic had told her, hey,
it needs a compressor, but it's two thousand dollars. She
didn't want to do a two thousand dollars compressor. She
wanted a second opinion. Now, if we hadn't diagnosed, if
we had just guessed and sold her a compressor, you know what, where's bad as the rest of them. There's
a difference between repair and replacement. And I think you
guys are starting to appreciate that more and more. You're
realizing that you know, it's not just experience, but it's approached because you know it's not because mechanics have to be so smart. But because today's vehicles are systems and
they're complicated. And I say this all the time, you
always hear me. The best defense is a good offense.
Take care of the car before it breaks. Don't wait
for smoke, don't wait for warning lights, don't wait until a tow truck is involved. Because once a vehicle breaks down,
you lose options, you lose time, you lose negotiating power.
You're going to make very expensive decisions emotionally instead of logically.
So if you're leasing, if you're owning, if you're trying to get fifteen years, know your maintenance schedule, know what you want to do. Do you want to repair, do
you want to replace? How do you want to approach this?
And if you don't know, talk to your mechanic. Can't
talk to your mechanic, you might have the wrong mechanic, and it might be time to find somebody that listens.
And then again, you might just want to be a number like at the deli counter now serving number six.
I'm Ron a Ady and the car doctor. I'll be
back right after this. Hey, let's get over and talk
to our main man, Micah Michaeh. What's going on?
Hey, Ron. This actually goes right along with what your
monologue was going about, and it's about diagnosis and it's about air conditioning because it's that time of year when you want to know that it's working right and you want to make sure that it's checked. And if I
remember correctly, you told me it's something you really need to definitely check about every two years or so.
Yeah, it's a good idea, especially if you're an environment I think all AC operates in this environment where moisture is a concern because moisture on the inside, while it won't save the desiccon or the dryer material in the AC system, moisture inside the A system will eventually turn into a corrosive acid and it eats away at the system from the inside out. So it's just a good
idea to do maintenance. And it's a benefit to the
system and then a benefit to you because the system works more efficiently.
Absolutely, And I just had that experience. You know, we
had that hot week up here last week, and I'm sure you had it down there, and I said, you know, it's time to test it and make sure everything's blowing right.
So I brought the car onto the highway and put it on maximum AC and have a little thermometer that I wish I could get another one that you know, fits right in the event, and I saw that it was blowing at about forty five degrees. It was cold,
but that's not where it's supposed to be blowing when it's that hot out and you have it on MAXAC.
So I had the service coming up, and I brought it into my dealership and I said, let's check it.
And they said, well, we'll put a thermometer in it.
I said, no, because you can't tell when it's only sixty degrees outside whether it's blowing correctly.
Right, there's no heat load exactly.
So I said, you know, I want to put the manifold on it and check the pressures and then see what's going on. You may need to pull a vacuum.
And they said, you sure don't want to pay for that, absolutely, And sure enough I was right. The high side was
lower than expected, and they ended up having to add three point six ounces of refrigerant to it and put in a die just to make sure. But I'm sure
everything's fine with that. It's just, you know, that's what
happens after a few.
Years Yeah, there's there's normal attrition, there's normal loss. And
here's why it's such a big deal because older vehicles, you know, it's it's a dramatic example, but you go back to cars thirty five forty years ago, they had three and a half four pounds of refrigerant. You know,
if they lost three ounces four ounces proportionally, it's not a lot. But a modern vehicle like your super ru
probably has a twenty ounce capacity. If it loses three
ounces proportionately, that's like a twenty five percent loss of charge.
So it actually might has fifteen ounces, which is I mean losing three ounces, that's twenty percent.
Right, that's that's even worse. And you know, at that
point you've got to sit there and think about system efficiency and operation, and it's it's the newer AC systems.
Anything in the last eight to ten years is smaller, it's more compact. It has to meet hoodline, it has
to meet body style, it has to meet you know, how the dashboard wraps around. All of that comes into
play when we're designing AC system and it's a case that, yeah, doing a service every couple of years isn't the worst idea.
The other thing is. And I know you're on this, Micah,
but I'm gonna I'm gonna mention if everybody else, you know, doing cabin filters on a regular basis, because a restricted cabin filter is going to affect airflow across the evaporator and then that affects system operation and system efficiency too.
Absolutely, though, you got to change that at least once a year, sometimes twice a year, depending on where you live.
Right yep, yeah, we and we'll do We'll do cabin and air filters, and I encourage everybody to do the same.
If the cabin filters dirty, so is the air. If
the air filters dirty, so is the cabin. They're both
basically breathing this the same contaminant. And you know, you
just you just want the system efficient. The bottom line
comes back to, and I appreciate the opportunity to talk about this, Micah, is that vehicles today are much more compact, They are much more maintenance driven, They are much more dependent upon their internal systems. And you know what did
Mom always say about the tea cart? Right on one
side of the t cart goes down, the other side goes up, and it upsets the whole thing. And it's
the truth. It's it's everything interacts and affects with everything,
and it becomes a problem. Now you're you've got an
older Subaru, correct.
Yeah, twenty fifteen.
So is it one thirty four or is it the twelve thirty four YF refrigerant?
You know that I don't know. They didn't put that
down on my on my list of stuff. They just
told me they added the refrigerant and that I'm assuming it's the older stuff.
Yeah, I'm assuming it's the older stuff too. Because it
was the newer stuff. Then we'd be talking about why
is it so expensive, and then we'd have to have the conversation about it. It's not that we made it
that way. It's that that's what the government decided and
through a bunch of environmental agencies that they wanted it to be. And the newer refrigerant is a little more
difficult to deal with in the sense that it requires a special machine, a separate machine. It's not the same.
You know, you can't use it one thirty four and a twelve thirty four machine. They don't interchange. But the
issue is when you've got a leaky twelve thirty four YF car, you'll know it. And it's amazing how much
tighter the production tolerances must be for the twelve thirty four cars because they generally don't leak the You know, when you see a twelve thirty four cars, we call it have an AC problem, it's usually a condenser failure.
And unfortunately, believe it or not, because I like the car line, it's usually a Honda. Hondas had their issues
with AC condensers and twelve thirty four yf You know, as long as we're talking tips about taking care of your conditioning, Mike, I mean again, I know you're on top of this because I know who you are and what you do, but everybody consider also keep the condenser clean, keep the radiator clean, debris all of that. And if
you've done any modifications to the front of the vehicle, anything that will affect the airflow through the grill area or through the condenser area, all of that will affect AC operation. And it doesn't take a lot for an
AC system to lose three or four degrees and have a problem with output performance. And you know it's it's
a problem.
You'll ask you another thing. Ron, I'm kind of curious
about this now because I know you have a one thirty four machine. You want to service my vehicle with
a one thirty four machine with twelve thirty four machines.
You said it's a separate machine. Did you get one
of those or did you do you send it out to see I have it? Those machines themselves have got
to be incredibly expensive. Seven brand must have to write
off the machine when you're selling service.
For that seven grand to get upset. Well, and you
know what you hope that you hope that you get your life cycle out of the machine before they come up with you know, thirteen twenty four. Why every refrigerant?
And you know, and there's the problem, Micah. You know,
it's not that auto repair shops want to be expensive, and it's I don't know that they are expensive, but you look at the risk, you look at the cost, you look at what's involved. It's a challenge to justify
changing some of these machines every five to six years.
And you know, to have more than one AC machine in house, you know, listen, it's an expensive proposition. But yes,
we have one. We use the Mala. Matter of fact,
both of our machines are MALA one thirty four and twelve thirty four yf excellent machines, automatic cycle process the whole nine yards. So, Mike, I enjoyed the conversation. As always,
you'd be safe up there. Coming up next, what's it
like to do one hundred and ten miles an hour into a third mile rounding round track. Well, Quinn Trim
or Trimmer Motorsports is in the green room. He's gonna
sit down and talk to us about it right after this.
I'm running any in the Car Doctor. Don't go anywhere.
On the city streets, STUDI roads. If you Ridney Ron,
we'll keep you con doctors done.
Well, we're all going to get in education with our next segment. And hello and welcome running any of the
Car Doctor. We've you know, we we've interviewed people from
all phases of racing and the different types of race cars out there. I think quarter mile to roundy rounds
and everything in between. But I don't think. Well, let
me bring our next guest in and then we'll talk about it. Quinn Trimmer from Trimmer Motorsports is here with
us today, and Quinn does something they call sportsmen modified, Right, Quinn, welcome to the Car Doctor.
By the way, Hey, how's it going. Good to talk
to you? Ron?
So sportsmen modified? You drive? What type of car?
So? Yeah, so modified are kind of an older standing
stock car. And what I say stock car, I mean
back in the day when motorsports was in its you know, youth people would just pull cars out of a junk carr to strip them out, put a you know, big built motor in it, and drive around an oble and go for a run. Now these are these are purpose
built cars with six h two sevy motors and the sports centers. And I run three fifty not three fifty
horse power, and there are on some real skinny tires.
So that's what I mean when I say I drive a Sportsman modified. They're they're the hybrid between the NASCAR
and an open wheel car, but they're designed for asshole level reason.
Now, your home track is right here in New Jersey, Wall Township, right, Wall Stadium, that's right. And that's an
asphalt track, right, This isn't third track. This is an
asphalt track.
Nope, Yeah, that's right. It's a third of a mile
asphalt oble.
And what what's top speed? What are the average speeds
you guys are running?
So you know, I've tried to do the math on it, but I think we're topping out maybe at about you know, maybe a around one hundred and ten miles an hour by the end of straight away, But our average is sitting there between eighty and nineties. So you're getting down
pretty slow in the corners.
Well, I don't know if that's pretty slow. Now wait
a minute, Quinn, that's you're you're doing eighty to one hundred and ten miles an hour on an oval track.
That's how far around?
Yeah, just a third of a mile. So picture your
average running track and put a put a big bowl around that right about how much facey up the race?
All right? So let's let's back up a second for
the listeners that are meeting you for the first time, how did you get started in this? Because this isn't well,
I guess it is every day, but it's not every day to me. You know, where do the interests come from?
Where did you get started? You know, how old were you?
The whole spiel, give us the give us the bio.
Yeah, absolutely so growing up, you know, every Sunday night my dad would have NASCAR on the TV, and and so I always sit there on the couch and watch it with them, and it was kind of, you know, just a TV show to me. I've been through plenty
of different sports, you know, trying basketball, baseball, whatnot. Nothing
really nothing really got me interested until you know, one day I was, you know, probably off of my my last tennis game, saying I don't want to do this anymore.
My dad looked at me while we were watching NASCAR and said, hey, would you ever want to do something like this? And it was a question I never thought
i'd get, but it was one that I jumped at and said, yeah, absolutely. So he had discovered the quarter
midgets at Wall Stadium back in I believe twenty twelve or twenty thirteen. I'm ten years old at the time you.
Were driving it. You were driving at the age of twelve.
Oh no, earlier, earlier, ten, ten, ten years old, and which is late, you know, believe it or not. People
are starting at four and a half years old in those things.
So are you is it? Are?
You know?
But it wasn't gold carts that you started in. It
was it was something it was a quarter midget.
That's right. Yeah. So they're like they're they're I couldn't
give you the exact dimensions of them. They're pretty small,
but they're full fledged race cars with shock suspension, one cylinder motors, so that you know, you're only getting about a max of fourteen horsepower in the division. They weigh
next to nothing, right, right?
Did it feel like you were going so fast at the age of ten flying around the track?
Oh?
Absolutely? So. The track that we reached on was a
twentieth of them mile, so not a great sense of scale, but it's a pretty tiny track that lap times were about seven seconds, so you're ripping around that thing pretty quick.
So it felt it felt faster than it was.
So, so you're ten years old, you're driving quarter midgetes around Wall Stadium and then what a couple of years later you graduate into what class of vehicle?
So yeah, so after you know, I had to turn sixteen years old get a permit to race to Big Wall Stadium and we got into legend cars, which would you want me to describe those? Really quick? Yeah?
What's now? What's a legend car?
So, legend car is if you imagine an old nineteen thirty four to forward, you know, and they scaled it down to about five aays to size. It's all stripped
out like a race car, and they throw a motorcycle motor in the front of it.
Kind of the round nose, the round back.
That's right, Yeah, real spooping, you know, got the fenders on it and everything. The only weigh about eleven hundred
pounds you know, with the with the driver, or maybe twelve hundred, but still next to nothing with the horse power they were pushing about one hundred.
And fifty depends if you had cheeseburgers on it before.
Exactly it didn't make an impact.
And then how fast did those cars go?
So those things, you know, we're still ripping about one hundred miles an hour, triple digits because they just waited next to nothing. You float through those corners pretty quick.
Oh and I guess I already know the answer to this question. I can tell from what you're saying. Your
dad was kind of the instigator here, right, He's just your your founding support, and I guess mom's in there too, and the rest of the family. Everybody's just kind of helping.
This is a real grassroots eft trimmer motorsports now.
Absolutely. I mean, look, I couldn't do without the support
of my family to be able to say, yeah, we're gonna put our ten year old and a and a race car statman behind the motor and let him go out there and have fun. But man, I mean without
without my dad, he's the lifeblood of this whole team. Uh,
And I can get into everything that he's done for me and we be on the show for another couple of hours, maybe a couple of days.
So but yeah, is it is?
It?
Is it? Did it teach a discipline? Quinn? I mean,
because there's there it's not forgiving out there, right, You're you're doing all you're doing between eighty one hundred and ten miles an hour around a third of a mile track.
There's no margin of error. You you learn life's shortcomings
and problems real quick, right.
Oh yeah, I mean besides, you know the lessons you win in any other sport like sportsmanship or the power of practice. You know, you see, you got to react
quick to things, and you got you gotta be able to roll with the punches. And stuff doesn't go your
way at one hundred miles an hour, it's kind of ruin your day and maybe your week, But you still got to get back after the next one.
Wall Stadium has a very high banking turns and like a tight racing groove. So you know when you when
you started there, what was the hardest thing for you to learn? Because you're in a bigger, faster, more powerful
car as you've as you've you know, grown in type of car.
It's definitely just you got to be able to trust that banking. You know, when you first barrow that car
into into turn one, you know, in your first corner and it looks like it's a complete one eighty. You know,
the turn looks like it comes up real fast and all you want to do is hit the brakes in this And what you really got to know is that that banking it's gonna hold you. So you got to
be able to trust that car, and every every out of your body's gonna tell you to stop and you gotta let it roll through, keep on the gas, and that's the only way to be fast. So it's a
big deep learning curve to get past of that.
So if you're if you're not going fast enough, you're gonna slide down the track, is what you're saying.
No, no, nothing like that. You know, even if you're
going you know, a sucking off the pace. Carl will
stick to the track, but you're gonna get run over and about half a half a laugh if you're not barreling into the corner like the rest of them.
So you got to you gotta be fast and high into the corner, and you got to be fast enough that the guy behind you isn't running you over.
That's right. Yeah, it's dangerous if you're too off the pace.
You know, not only are you liable to get wrecked, so you're liable to wreck whole bunch of race cards along with it.
You know, we may not let your mother listen to this interview. You know, how does mom deal with it?
Does she listen to the races?
So she's come by a whole bunch And every time I have ARONO, I'll call her on the phone and I'll talk to her about it. And you know, it's
just she has never, you know, never been restrictively worried.
She knows how much safety equipment I wear and I go in these cards. She knows that there's not many
injuries that go into the compared to the sport like football.
So she's been calm, always supportive, and you know, just loves that I'm doing it and loves that I'm having fun.
So how old were you? And let me let me
give you the whole question. You know, your very first
night at Wall Stadium as a driver for a Sportsman modified car, what's going through your mind? And how old
were you?
So in the Sportsman, Let's see, I must have been I gotta, I gotta do a little math in my head.
Let's just wager to say I was probably around, you know, maybe nineteen or twenty. And and you know, getting into
getting into that car. The first thing you know, you've
unloaded and it's just a lot more cars. So of
course you know you're nervous going into it, and you just gotta you know, there's so many ways that I'll like talk to myself in that race car to kind of calm myself down. And it all comes down to
just remembering that, you know, stuff happens. You know, you
can sit there in the car and plan out that entire race in your head, and as soon as the green flag drops, all that planning goes away. Anything can
happen at any moment's notice. There's no reason to be nervous. Quinn,
Let's stop the lection time.
Let's pull over into the pits as it were. When
we come back, I want to talk about you know, I had a pre radio conversation with your dad and Dad was talking to me about how much you've learned about how to explain to him the car does this the card that? So when we come back, we're gonna
we're gonna touch on that. We're here with Quinn Trimmer
of Trimmer Motorsports. I'm Ronnin Andy and the car Doctor.
We'll return right after this. Quinn Trimmer is here with
his Trimmer Motorsports. Quinn. When we pulled away for the pause,
the question was you know and talking to your dad.
Dad explained to me we were talking and he said, how much more of a mechanic you are. You're more
mechanical now and you've learned from just driving the cars the car positive is the negative? Which way to tweak
the suspension? How long did that take? And I guess
it's an ongoing process, right, you know, how does the car handle? And to respond in terms that Dad can
relate to and make adjustments.
Yeah, it's exactly right. It's ongoing, you know. But it
took me at least three or four years just to understand where the car needed adjustment, if it was feeling loose, tight or whatever it was. So but I'm still still learning.
End I'll being underneath the car and driving it.
So who's who's first? On race weekend? When do you
guys prep when you guys start to get ready to go to the race? Like it's you know, it is
it a Wednesday to Thursday thing getting ready to go for Saturday? Or is it is it a week long
thresh at night after your day jobs?
Yeah, I mean, it kind of depends on that the car got damaged, but general mean and setup can take you know, a day or two, and otherwise you might want to go in the garage and just try something out, see if you can move weight around. But you know,
it kind of depends. But me and me, I would
say Thursday, Friday, and then we're loaded up for Saturday.
Right, who's first at the shop? You were dead?
Oh, it's definitely my dad.
Who's the last to leave?
Who do you think?
I got to say? Your dad? I'm getting a sense here,
you know, But I think he's just having a ball doing this with you, And I think it's a great opportunity for a father's son to be together like.
That, I'm still glad to have. And I'll tell you
what you know.
I mean the question I always ask at this point in any interviews, there person on the team you couldn't do without, and I guess it's your dad, right.
Right?
Yeah, you know it's So what's more difficult driving the car fast for twenty five laps or keeping your emotions under control when things get really aggressive out there? I mean,
are there? Are there good races and bad races? And
then how do you react to that? And then how
do you come back for the next one?
So yeah, I think it's definitely the It's definitely harder to keep the car fast and consistent for all all twenty five to however many lasts that we race. I
don't think it's too hard to keep your emotions underneathy.
You know, being mad's not going to make the car any faster. And sure, I'll kee up on the radio
during the yellows and and you know, moan about this and that, But you know, once the green flag drops, it's it's pure focused. You got plenty of time to
feel things, and you know, right when the when the checker flags over, that's when you could start digesting the emotions and figuring out with super next week.
Quinn, how much of racing today is driver talent versus car set up, tires, shocks, chassis tuning. You know, does
does the driver make the car? Does the car make
the driver? Or is it an equal contribution?
I would say it's close to an equal contribution in the way that if you're a good driver and you got a bad race car or fad being relative, you can still drive the car and be fat, you know, and be competitive. The same way if you're a newer
driver or a poorer driver in terms of racing skill and discipline, you can be in a fast car and run that thing up front too. But you got to
have both of them to be up there consistently and winning races. And if you don't have either, then you're at.
The one Quinn, Is NASCAR in your future for Trimmer Motorsports?
God? I hope. So, you know, I'm I'm perfectly content
to keep racing locally, but I'm building my craft up and build my brand up as much as I can so that maybe we can get noticed and be on the big stage one of these days, is it?
And I don't know if this is the right question to ask, but I'm going to ask it. Is it
you know, you go wanting to win every night or is it just the thrill of the chase, the race itself.
I mean, Winn's that's the that's the big prize, right, But I would definitely say, you know, we we go after it every week because it's addicting, you know, it's you want to go there and get better, to finish better every week and have a faster lap time. And
that's what we did all twenty twenty five. Even though
we went wins last season, we improved every single week and it's just such a good experience be seing me and my dad and it's enthralling, you know, just getting better every week.
Real quick answer, Quinn, does racing make you better at your day job?
Oh? Yeah, yeah, it's just it. It's in all aspects
of life. You learn so much throughout race and and
just in those quick moments with all those people around you and hosh stressed situations. It's it's great for you know,
all things. Definitely in my day job for sure.
Definitely gives you that discipline. Where can the listeners get
more information Quinn. If they want to follow Trimmer Motorsports,
where are you?
Yeah, so on Facebook, I'm another Quinn Strimmer Racing, And on TikTok and Instagram it's Trimmer Motorsports. One word, all.
Right, cool beans. Listen about a month, six weeks, you
knock on my door. You come around again. We want
to see where you are in the standings this year.
All right, well do you're very welcome. Say hi to
mom and dad. I'm running any in the car doctor.
We're back right after this. Once again, I want to
thank Quinn Trimmer for stopping buying and taking the time.
He's racing tonight Wall Stadium and this weekend and then forward with his schedule. You'll find him on Facebook Trimmer Motorsports.
But I thought the interesting part of that, and I don't know if you got it, if you heard it in the interview. He's young. He's twenty four or twenty five?
Did he say? But there's a classic example of what
cars can do. Right, We talk about it all the time.
Where are all the mechanics? Why was there such an
abundance of mechanics? Because the fifties, sixties, and seventies, he's
had cars that could be serviced and worked on, and they were fun. The muscle cart You're a Hot Rods customization,
all the changes in the automobiles that created a generation after generation after generation. I still think there's good mechanics
out there. I think it takes young men like Quinn
Trimmer and the Quinn Trimmers of the world to go motorsport racing and to build up America's love affair with automobiles once again. And I think that's part of what's
in that interview that we may or may not have heard.
It's been fun being here this hour. As always, check
out the podcast. They'll be up at five pm Eastern time.
I'm running any in the Car Doctor till the next time.
Good mechanics aren't expensive, they're priceless. To see you. He
the Car Doctor. Car advice to write
About this episode
Battery voltage, oil/coolant upkeep, and A/C charge all come up as Ron Ananian pushes evidence-based diagnosis over guesswork. He explains how low voltage can trigger “six warning lights,” why short trips are “brutal,” and how skipping coolant service can stress a turbo. For A/C, he contrasts an internet “bad compressor” claim with a low-refrigerant reality, then gets technical about manifold gauges and moisture-caused corrosion. The hour pivots to Quinn Trimmer’s “sportsmen modified” racing at Wall Stadium—banking, no margin of error, and years of suspension learning.
